A fire stranded 27 vehicles inside a 5,200-meter-long tunnel for more than three hours in central China's Hubei Province Tuesday.

The fire occurred at 4:30 p.m. inside a highway tunnel in Yichang City of Hubei, firefighters told Xinhua late Tuesday.

Initial investigation indicated that the fire started from a wheel of a trailer pulled by a truck.

Unable to put out the fire, the driver drove the truck out of the tunnel, leaving the burning trailer behind.

Police and firefighters arrived on the scene 20 minutes later and evacuated 290 people, including drivers and passengers.

The fire was extinguished at 7:45 p.m., and there were no casualties, local police said.