Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker The explosion was reported at around 17:00 on Friday evening in the village of Pasvalio Vienkiemiai The explosion occurred in the Amber Grid gas main pipeline it seemed as if planes were flying somewhere low – a high-pressure gas pipeline exploded on the side of Valakėliai The flames are shooting up to a high altitude,” Pasvalys District Mayor Gintautas Gegužinskas described the incident to LRT RADIO [...] There is no immediate danger to property traffic is temporarily suspended,” he continued The adjacent village of Valakėliai is being evacuated spokeswoman for the Panevėžys District Police Valakėliai has a population of around 250 and is located 4 kilometres west of Pasvalys on the Šiauliai-Pakruojis-Pasvalys highway “The village is about 500-700 metres from the gas pipeline making sure the buildings don’t catch fire I think the situation will be under control,” Sigitas Šležas a member of the Valakėliai village community He said that local residents were starting to leave their homes “Gas transportation through the damaged pipeline was immediately halted but Pasvalys district consumers are already being provided with gas through the adjacent pipeline,” Amber Grid The affected pipeline supplies gas to the northern part of Lithuania and delivers gas to Latvia director of the Pasvalys District Municipality Administration commented to LRT TV that the incident may cause disruptions of gas supply to Latvia as well as northern Lithuania Amber Grid said that the fire was successfully extinguished the incident in the Pasvalys district in the Northern part of Lithuania which occurred on the Amber Grid gas main pipeline The gas that ignited during the incident stopped burning after about four hours,” Amber Grid said in a statement A gas pipeline connecting Lithuania and Latvia was hit by an explosion on Friday "On Friday at around 5pm an explosion occurred in the Amber Grid gas pipeline in Pasvalys District," Lithuania gas transmission operator Amber Grid said in a statement The explosion took place away from residential buildings," it said adding that firefighters were extinguishing the blaze Amber Grid CEO Nemunas Biknius said they were investigating the cause of the blast The explosion was reported in the Lithuanian village of Pasvalio Vienkiemiai, some 180km north of Vilnius. The village of around 250 people was evacuated “There were unexpected sounds, it seemed as if planes were flying somewhere low — a high-pressure gas pipeline exploded ... a couple of kilometers from Pasvalys. The flames are shooting up to a high altitude,” Pasvalys District Mayor Gintautas Gegužinskas told LRT RADIO. The pipeline supplies gas to the northern part of Lithuania and delivers gas to Latvia China is the largest foreign investor in Hungary — and the government wants more Kyiv says the border blockade is hurting its economy and taxes but Polish truckers claim they face discrimination in Ukraine Russian steel maker NLMK is a key supplier to the Czech auto industry which accounts for around 10 percent of the country’s GDP US carmaker is China’s biggest exporter but it’s been excluded from the probe meaning it could be hit by duties based on state aid doled out to its competitors We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. Learn more. “If we find that any additional work needs to be done But we plan to put the pipeline into operation tomorrow [Monday] The explosion of a gas pipeline was reported at around 17:00 on Friday in the village of Pasvalio Vienkiemiai Read more: Gas pipeline explosion rocks northern Lithuania, 250 people told to evacuate The fire was localised after the valves were closed gas supply to consumers was largely unaffected Insulation works have recently been carried out at the site of the exploded gas pipeline “Works are regularly done to ensure the safety of the pipeline We have also done this type of works on this pipeline But they were of a nature that did not have a direct impact on the pipeline itself they were related to the re-wrapping of the pipeline's insulation “The pipeline should not have been damaged during the works,” he added police opened a pre-trial investigation to find out whether the maintenance and repair work on the gas pipeline was carried out properly “An investigation will be carried out to see if there was no additional external impact we consider it to be a technical seam defect,” Biknius said adding that such an investigation is normal practice in such cases Amber Grid has already scheduled internal diagnostics and will carry out checks on this and other pipelines The remains of 31 people have been exhumed They were mainly those of unidentified Red Army soldiers as well as of two local Soviet activists the remains will be reburied at one of the burial sites for Soviet soldiers in the district A number of Soviet-era monuments and memorials have been removed across Lithuania following the Russian invasion of Ukraine the parliament passed a so-called “desovietisation” law banning promotion of “totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies” in public places The legislation is intended to force the removal of Soviet-era monuments in the country The Cultural Heritage Department claims that the removal in Pumpėnai was undertaken in order to comply with the requirements of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts which provides for respect for the deceased which is “incompatible with respect for the buried