An explosion on a Gazpromtransgaz trunk gas pipeline outside Moscow on Friday sent a fire ball 20 metres into the air.

The blast on the pipeline some 140 kilometres to the southeast of the Russian capital cause a severe fire and a rupture to the facility.

No fatalities or injuries were reported as a result of the incident, which occurred in the early hours of Friday morning in the countryside near the town of Lukhovitsy. However, its aftermath was widely caught on mobile phone cameras and then circulated on social media, initially provoking fears among the local population.

According to preliminary reports, the pipeline failed to withstand a sudden spike in pressure in a transportation segment of over 100 kilometres, however, it has not been revealed what had caused such a pressure abnormality.

The Moscow regional emergency situations department said that it took five minutes for pipeline operator Gazpromtransgaz to halt the pumping of new gas into the damaged segment, and about three hours for gas that remained in the segment to burn out.

Gazpromtransgaz is scheduled to replace the damaged segment of the pipeline during the weekend to restore its operations.

The accident occurred at a segment of the Central Asia – Centre - 2 trunk pipeline system that carries gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the south of Russia to central regions of the country.

The explosion has not affected the delivery of gas to customers in Moscow and the region around the city, as the flow continued via neighbouring segments of the system.

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Blast rocks Russian pipeline near Moscow