Photo by Chris Reif

This post has been updated.

Metrorail’s Orange and Blue lines are currently suspended between Metro Center and Federal Center SW after an incident earlier this morning in which a piece of a Vienna-bound Orange train came loose and made contact with the third rail at the Smithsonian station, a Metro spokesman says.

About 9:45 a.m. part of the train’s brake assembly fell off and hit the electrified rail, creating a cloud of smoke and prompting an emergency evacuation, says the spokesman, Dan Stessel.

The incident prompted an evacuation of that train, as well as trains backed up in both directions, has been underway for the past few hours. Most evacuations have taken place at Smithsonian and L’Enfant Plaza, Stessel says. There were 300 riders on the train that caused the scene. The D.C. Fire Department treated a few people for minor injuries, mostly “anxiety-related,” Stessel says.

The Examiner’s Kytja Weir has been tweeting the situation this morning and has heard from riders stuck for hours on stalled trains.

Courtesy of Shana-Tara Regon

We received the pitch-black photo at right from Shana-Tara Regon, who says she was aboard the last train to be evacuated from Smithsonian. Regon says she took it about 11:45 a.m. after emergency responders’ lights had faded. Via another reader, Regon describes a harrowing scene on her train, saying “at first it was smoky and hard to breathe” and that some riders were panicking. “Then the emergency lights just died,” she says.

Stessel says Metro expects to have the Orange and Blue lines reopened this afternoon in time for rush hour. In the mean time, he says, Metro is running shuttle buses between Metro Center and Federal Center SW, adding about 20 minutes of travel time.

UPDATE 1:55 p.m.: Trains are running on a single track between Metro Center and Federal Center SW, Metro says on its website.

UPDATE 2 p.m.: Trains are back in normal service in both directions, with some residual delays, Metro says.