The district administration's swift response helped avert a disaster after 20,000 litres of petrol leaked from the Barauni-Kanpur pipeline of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) on Monday in Naubatpur block, around 25km southwest of Patna.

Though the situation was brought under control by clearing the oil from the leakage site, experts suspected a botched pilferage attempt behind it.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal has ordered an FIR to be registered at Naubatpur police station, and has asked the police, as well as IOCL officials to investigate the incident thoroughly.

Around 8.30am, a group of villagers discovered the leak at Babugaon village of Gonama panchayat. One of them immediately informed the police after which senior cops, administrative officials, and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the area cordoned off.

"We got the area cordoned off within minutes of getting information about the leak in the Barauni-Kanpur pipeline, else villagers could have rushed to collect petrol that had seeped out and accumulated into a vertical ditch close to the pipeline. A spark would have been catastrophic and could have led to loss of several lives and damage to the pipeline," Agarwal said.

Admitting that the leak could have been a sabotage attempt, the IOCL official said there have been such efforts in different parts of Bihar previously, and petrol worth lakhs had been stolen in a few cases. However, IOCL sources said the pipeline network has sensors and expressed surprise on how a leakage of such a large amount of fuel oil, which must have started at night, went unnoticed by those manning the operations.

The sources said the ground near the leakage spot was freshly dug, indicating "high probability of a systematic pilferage attempt".

The administration has informed the Barauni refinery, which rushed a maintenance team to the spot to plug the leak and remove the highly inflammable fuel from the area.

"The leaked petrol is being collected in three tankers that have been sent to the site. It will be taken to the IOCL depot at Sipara on the outskirts of Patna. Repair and maintenance activities will begin in full swing after the inflammable liquid is cleared. The pipeline has suffered minor damages, but it will not take much time to repair it," a senior IOCL official said.