Passengers on the Vaishali Superfast Express had a close shave on Tuesday as a coach caught fire but a tragedy was averted because the guard spotted the smoke in time.

The train - travelling between Barauni and New Delhi, had left the Muzaffarpur railway station around 11.32am and was crossing the outer signal when smoke from the ball-bearing of the wheels of S2 coach was spotted.

The train was stopped, and pulled back to the Muzaffarpur station even as several hundred passengers on board panicked at the sight of the flames.

The travellers ran helter-skelter to the other connected coaches to escape being singed. Some even jumped on to the tracks from the moving train, as it had not picked up speed. Although the fire quickly spread in the affected coach, and the compartment was severely damage, none of the passengers was seriously injured.

"Heavy smoke filled the S2 coach which I had boarded as there was no place in the general compartment," said Rajesh Kumar, a student who was travelling to Delhi but dropped the plan after the providential escape. "Everybody started screaming and running. I collected my luggage and ran towards the door. Luckily the train was moving slowly and I jumped on the tracks."

Shocked passengers recalled scenes from the 1980 Hindi film The Burning Train where the "Super Express" speeds past stations in flames after it is sabotaged.

"Had the train been moving at a high speed as it normally does, it would have been a disaster and several of us would have died. It is pure luck that nothing serious happened to anybody, despite a few people falling in the attempt to rush away from the coach," said Amresh Singh, another passenger.

Chief public relations officer of East Central Railway Arvind Kumar Rajak told The Telegraph that the incident happened after the Vaishali Superfast Express left Muzaffarpur station at 11.32am. "The guard travelling with the train reported it around 11.45am while the train was passing the starter (outer) signal of the station," he said.

"The guard reported smoke coming out from the ball-bearings of the wheels of the S2 coach. The train was stopped and taken back to Muzaffarpur station around 12.08pm," Rajak added. "The affected coach was detached and replaced with a general compartment as no spare sleeper coach was available.

"The train was provided primary maintenance at Barauni station, its origin station. Such incident is highly undesirable despite maintenance and should not have happened. We are looking into the entire matter."

The train resumed its journey to New Delhi after a delay of around two hours.