5 people in custody following NE China oil leak

An oil pipeline catches fire in northeast China's Dalian city on the evening of June 30. (Photo/Chinanews.com).

Five people are in police custody following a crude oil spill from a pipeline of PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, in northeast China's coastal city of Dalian, local authorities said on Tuesday.

The five are from Yuelin Construction Engineering Company of Dalian.

A drilling operation damaged an oil pipeline near Dalian University in Jinzhou New District and caused a leak at 6:58pm on Monday. It also caused a big fire.

The spill entered the urban sewage pipeline network, but did not contaminate drinking water, the city's emergency response office spokesman said.

The environmental protection department found that volatile organic compound (VOC) in the city's air was 0.79 times the standard, while other air quality indexes were normal.

Workers are cleaning up and recycling the leaked oil. A further investigation is under way.