More than 10,000 passengers were delayed for at least two hours at Guangzhou south railway station on 6 February because of an equipment error on the high-speed train between Guangzhou and Wuhan.

The error, which happened in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, caused the third delay to the service since operations began in late December.

Police officers were sent to the station to help maintain order as passengers had to contend with inadequate toilet facilities and long queues for refreshments.

The 1,069km Wuhan-Guangzhou railway, China’s first long-distance high-speed line, is expected to carry more than 1.6m passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival season, with 33 pairs of trains operating each day.