This paper studies the thermal shock fracture of a cracked cylinder based on the hyperbolic heat conduction. The crack faces are subjected to a sudden anti-symmetric thermal flux and a sudden symmetric thermal flux, respectively. By Laplace transform and dual integral equation technique, the mode II stress intensity factor and the mode I stress intensity factor are developed at the crack front for the two cases, respectively. Numerical results of stress intensity factor for selected thermal relaxation time and crack size are shown graphically. It is found that the stress intensity factor is considerably enhanced for large thermal relaxation time (which is a material constant) or small crack radius. In addition, the stress intensity factor at the crack front increases with the thermal relaxation time. For the case of anti-symmetric thermal flux, the mode II stress intensity factor increases rapidly with crack size. Whereas for the case of symmetric thermal flux, with increasing crack size, the mode I stress intensity factor increases slowly. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.