KAIZUKA, Osaka -- A fire at a plastic recycling factory here early Saturday forced the suspension of services on nearby railway lines, police and the railway operator said.

At around 4:20 a.m. on Saturday, a fire broke out at the Kaizuka No. 4 factory of the Kawase Sangyo plastic recycling company in Kaizuka, local police said.

The fire burned 2,714 square meters of the factory and about 30 tons of waste plastic in the structure before it was extinguished at around noon. Nobody was injured.

Services on part of the Nankai Railway's Main Line, Airport Line and Wakayama Port Line were suspended for about 4 1/2 hours from 5:40 a.m. because of the blaze, affecting about 81,000 passengers. Passengers for Kansai International Airport were transferred to the JR Hanwa Line.

The last remaining worker locked the factory at 7 p.m. on Friday before going home, and police say there is no sign that someone sneaked into the structure after that time. A furnace for melting plastic for recycling had been set to ignite automatically at 5 a.m. on Saturday.

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