MOSCOW - A fire broke out Wednesday in a Moscow metro, injuring at least 30 people, the Emergency Situations Ministry's local bureau said.

About 4,500 commuters were evacuated as a cable caught fire and caused heavy smoke in the Sokolnicheskaya line, or the red line of Moscow. The fire was extinguished at around 09:00 am local time (0500 GMT).

"More than 30 people have been injured, and more are expected to seek medical assistance," the Interfax news agency quoted the bureau spokesman Viktor Biryukov as saying,

Another source in law enforcement department said the fire was not caused by human factor, but "most likely by a technical malfunction."

"It will take some two hours to liquidate all consequences of the fire," the source said, adding the metro would resume its normal operation after noon.