On Friday, an explosion damaged the Amber Grid gas pipeline, which connects the Baltic states to Poland in northern Lithuania, without casualties, the local operator said on its website, AFP reported.

pipelinePhoto: dpa picture alliance / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

“Around 5:00 p.m. local time, an explosion occurred at the Amber Grid gas pipeline in the Pasvali district. According to the first data, no one was injured,” the Amber Grid group said in a statement.

According to the operator, the explosion occurred on one of the two pipelines of the gas pipeline far from residential buildings, and the fire that caused it is “extinguishing”.

“We immediately started investigating the circumstances of the incident and ensuring the supply of gas to consumers,” Amber Grid CEO Nemunas Biknius said in a statement.

The group also said that the gas pipeline where the fire occurred was used to supply gas to the north of Lithuania and to transport gas to the neighboring country of Latvia.

Since June 2022, Lithuania has banned the import of Russian gas, in the context of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

A video released by Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT on Friday evening shows a fire at the site of the explosion in the Panevezys region of northern Lithuania.

The flames rose about 50 meters into the air and could be seen from a distance of at least 17 km, LRT said, as quoted by Reuters.