'Very dangerous': 'Sabotaged' fuel pipe leaking near Auckland waterway

UPDATE - 11:40AM: A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson confirmed to rova, the suspected diesel leak from a pipe at an incident attended by FENZ in Manurewa at 6.30am today was cable cooling fluid used to insulate power cables and not a leak from the pipe as believed when crews first arrived on the scene.

Emergency services told rova they were called to Great South Rd in Manurewa at 6:30am after reports of smelling fuel and a potential diesel leak near a U-GO petrol station in the area.

A specialist hazmat unit is on the scene, and a fuel truck is on the way.

Fire and Emergency NZ Assistant Commander Chris Delfos told NZ Herald situation is "very dangerous".

“At this stage, it would appear that there’s been some sort of, sabotage to the pipeline, and we’re investigating that,” he said.

“We don’t know how much fuel has spilled because we don’t know when it started. There’s also been a telecom line that has been cut that people got notified about that about 3 o’clock this morning."

Emergency services believe that the sabotage could have occured around the same time.

Crews are now working to contain the spill, with fuel being pumped into large containers to stop it spreading further - especially into nearby waterways.

The pipeline runs alongside a bridge over a river, making it a risky situation for the environment.

Delfos added via 1News: "There may be some minor environmental issues" due to the spill. "Of course, it has been leaking into the river, but we’re capturing about 90% of it.”

Delfos warned just how risky it is to tamper with fuel infrastructure.

“I know things are tight in the fuel industry at the moment, and people are paying a lot of money, but it’s not worth your life," he said. "So don’t do it.”

“It’s very, very dangerous to be attempting to cut into any sort of fuel line."

Fire crews say they’ve managed to contain most of the spill so far.