Dibrugarh, July 18: Seven crude oil tankers of Oil India Limited (OIL) were gutted at an unloading station in Dikom in Dibrugarh district of Assam today.

An OIL official said a tanker was unloading crude oil at a crude oil browser unloading station around 1.45pm when it suddenly caught fire. In a flash, the flames engulfed six other tankers at the site.

The unloading station is near the Upper Assam town of Dibrugarh, about 445km from Guwahati.

The blaze was finally brought under control by fire tenders from OIL Duliajan, Air Force Chabua and BCPL, Dibrugarh, at 3.45pm.

There was no report of any casualty or injury. The cause of the fire is yet unknown.

The incidence caused panic in the area and many rushed to the spot as the news spread.

"We were really afraid after seeing the fire, which engulfed the tankers. In 2005, following a leakage in an oil field, a fire broke out and our paddy fields were destroyed. Today, we thought the same thing had happened but thank god everything is fine,'' a resident of Dikom said.

The fire that had broken out in an oil well in Dikom on September 15, 2005, had caused huge loses to OIL too.

The amount of crude oil destroyed in today's fire was not immediately known. On an average, around 1,000 kilolitre of crude oil comes to the station daily from various oil wells, the OIL official said.

Plea to ban tobacco

A sit-in, demanding ban on all tobacco products in Dibrugarh, was today organised by the district unit of the All Assam Hindu Students' Union and the All Assam Muttock Yuba Chatra Sanstha.

In February 2014, Assam had passed a law banning consumption and manufacture of all forms of smokeless tobacco. "Nothing has changed even after the act was passed. We demand a ban on all forms of tobacco products in Dibrugarh. Recently, we had protested in Tinsukia and the products have been banned there,'' said Lalan Sahani, central organising secretary of the Hindu Students' Union.

A memorandum was submitted to deputy commissioner M.S. Manivannan.

"We demand that the deputy commissioner should take stern action to ban such products,'' said a member of the Muttock Students' Union.

AASU seeks probe: The Tinsukia unit of All Assam Students' Union today protested in front of the divisional forest office of Tinsukia wildlife division, seeking an inquiry into the illegal settlers at Dibru Sikhowa National Park.

The AASU alleged a nexus between the illegal settlers and the forest department.

"Human habitation is totally prohibited in the national park then how can those people stay in the area. Earlier, we had asked the forest department to identify illegal settlers and send them to foreigners tribunal but they failed to do so,'' said Mohammad Tarik, AASU president, Tinsukia, and demand an inquiry into the matter.

Recently, forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma had visited the park to take stock of the flood situation.