A high-speed Chinese train ran through a group of maintenance workers, killing 18 and injuring nine, the Railway Ministry said on Friday.

The train was travelling from Beijing to the eastern coastal resort city of Qingdao on Wednesday evening when the accident happened.

"The workers were relocating the tracks when the train ran into the work site" in the city of Anqiu in Shandong province, Xinhua news agency said.

The workers had arrived on the site ahead of schedule, when passing trains were still travelling at up to 120 km per hour (75 mph), rather than the 45 km per hour mandated for passing through areas under maintenance, the report added.

"The injured had been hospitalised and were in a stable condition and the transportation of the railway had resumed after a short suspension," it cited the ministry as saying.

No passengers on the train were killed or injured, a ministry official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. He did not explain why it took two days for the news to come to light.

Trains are packed in China as people head to their home provinces for the Lunar New Year holiday which starts on February 7.