One of the main pipelines delivering oil from Russia to its European neighbours was ruptured at the weekend posing a serious environmental threat, a senior environmental official said on Monday.
Local officials had attempted to cover up information about the rupture Saturday in the Druzhba pipeline in the Russian province of Bryansk near the Belarussian border, said Oleg Mitvol, deputy director of the environmental monitoring service at the ministry of natural resources.
"There has been an attempt to hide the information on this leak on the part of the official organisations involved, which increases our concern about the risk to the environment," he said.
Up to 10,000 square metres (12,000 square yards) of territory may have been polluted by the leak, he said.
The section where the rupture occurred runs from Unechka in Bryansk province to the nothern Belarussian city of Polotsk.
Russia's Transneft oil pipeline monopoly declined to comment immediately on the spill, saying that it would be releasing a statement shortly.
Lithuania's Economy Minister, Vytas Navickas, said Monday that a technical problem had halted the flow of crude oil from Russia to Lithuania's Mazeikiu Nafta refinery.
Mitvol said an official commission was due to arrive at the site of the rupture on Monday afternoon.
