This footage shows clever railway workers shovelling snow into a burning train cockpit to douse the flames as the huge blaze threatens to engulf it.

The fire broke out in the cockpit of a train at around 11 am in the Demsky district of the city of Ufa in south-central Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan region.

Reportedly the cause of the fire was an electrical short-circuit.

Railway workers realised that there was no easily accessible fire extinguisher in the area, and the single hydrant was locked up for unreported reasons.

Station employees are seen on a video throwing shovelfuls of snow into the cockpit and successfully dousing the flames.

An unnamed representative of the local fire brigade said: "By the time we got there, employees of the train station managed to stop the blaze on the train on their own."

The firefighters simply damped down the fire site, to prevent any re-ignition.

No injuries were reported. The cost of the damage to the train cockpit was not reported and it was not clear how services were affected.

The incident is being investigated by both police and the state-owned rail firm JSC Russian Railways.

Ufa, the 11th biggest city in Russia by population, is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan and its economic and industrial hub.