Austrian emergency services have rescued some 150 passengers from an international night train heading for Amsterdam and Hamburg after a fire in a tunnel in the mountainous Austrian region of Tyrol.

The fire broke out on Wednesday evening in the 16-kilometre Terfner tunnel, causing a major incident. In total, 33 people were taken to hospital after inhaling smoke, the Tyrol authorities said.

The train, a Nightjet service, was due to divide later in the journey with some of the carriages heading for the Dutch capital, the rest for Hamburg.

The passengers who were rescued from the train were put up overnight in hotels in Innsbruck.

The fire is thought to have started when damaged overhead cables fell on a carriage carrying cars. The fire was put out after around one hour but the tunnel remains closed.