Oil pipeline bursts under river in Siberia

A burst pipeline in Siberia led to a dramatic scene Saturday as partially refined oil caught fire on the ice of the frozen Ob River, according to Russian officials and media reports.

The spill occurred in the heartland of Russia’s oil industry, the Khanty-mansiysk region of Siberia, which is dotted with wells and crisscrossed by pipelines but is sparsely populated. News reports said one person had been injured.

Reports carried by the news agencies Tass and Interfax did not describe the scale of the spill other than to note the size of the burning hole in the river ice as being about a quarter of an acre in size.