A middle-aged man was beaten to death on the train when he tried to mediate a quarrel between a passenger and three train stewards, Jiangxi TV reported Tuesday.

A total of 20 passengers on the Shenzhen-Hefei K256 train bore witness and submitted testimony with their signatures and fingerprints, the report said.

According to a female passenger surnamed Lai, the incident took place at 00:05 at Ganzhou railway station in Jiangxi province. A passenger next to her was quarreling with train stewards on the No 15 car, and another man came to make peace between them, when a train vendor suddenly stormed in from the No 14 car and held the mediator's neck and beat him through the cars. During the altercation, the mediator may have been hit on his temple.

Three stewards, including a man in a conductor's uniform, hit the mediator, and by the time the ambulance arrived, the man was already dead, Lai said.