A power cable has been vandalised outside an Auckland petrol station in a suspected act of sabotage.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand and police responded to the initial report of fuel flowing on Great South Rd in Manurewa and believed a fuel pipe was cut.

Further investigation revealed it was a power cable with fuel insulation as a coolant that was apparently vandalised.

The emergency response is focused outside the U-GO petrol station.

“At this stage, it would appear that there’s been some sort of, sabotage to the pipeline, and we’re investigating that,” Fire and Emergency NZ assistant commander Chris Delfos said.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand and police responded to the report of fuel flowing on Great South Rd in Manurewa this morning. Photo / Michael Craig

“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. So it could have been leaking since about that time.”

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

Emergency services are responding to a fuel pipeline vandalism in Manurewa. Photo / Michael Craig

Traffic is heavy in Manurewa as one lane is closed to allow emergency services to respond to the incident.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson told the Herald that two crews were called to a site near Waiata Shores in Takanini after a 111 call from a member of the public reporting a strong smell of fuel.

Fire and Emergency crews are working to decant fuel into large containers.

The spokesperson said the pipe runs alongside a bridge over a waterway and efforts are being made to prevent the fuel from spilling into waterways.

They confirmed the pipe was vandalised. Police have been approached for comment.

A spokeswoman for nearby petrol station, Gull Takanini, told the Herald she got a phone call from a colleague and then a Fire and Emergency crew member at 7.30am.

“They wanted to see if I had the fuel line logs which I do. I went straight down.”

The vandalised service station U-Go and Gull do not share a pipeline.

“Everything is okay on our end. We are still open,” the Gull spokeswoman said.

“It was definitely scary when I got the call ... it was just precautionary.”

The Mobil station across the road is open and no surrounding shops appear to be affected.