Rail passengers riding the MBTA's Newbury/Rockport line Wednesday night experienced some delays out of Salem after a local dog was reportedly run over on the train tracks.

At 7:45 p.m., police received word that a white dog that had been running into traffic in Beverly was making its way across the Veterans Memorial Bridge into Salem, according to Salem police Lt. Mary Butler.

Butler said one of the reporting parties told police that a person who was chasing the dog over the bridge ended up jumping out onto the train tracks after it.

After receiving word from an MBTA conductor that a dog had been struck on the tracks in Salem, local officers held up train traffic while they searched the area for the person believed to have been chasing the dog.

"Nobody knows, we never located a person," Butler said when asked if they knew if the person chasing the dog was its owner. "So after a while we moved the trains along."

The dog was reportedly struck somewhere between the Veterans Memorial Bridge and the train depot.

Passengers on the commuter rail Wednesday night reportedly experienced a 20 to 25 minute delay as a result of the investigation, according to scanner reports.