India, Dec. 31 -- A deafening explosion followed by a gas leak at a GAIL India Limited substation triggered panic in the area on Wednesday evening, with the leakage continuing for over four hours.

Officials said engineers from Lucknow, Auraiya and Kanpur were rushed to the site and efforts were on to contain the leak, which had not been fully stopped till late night.

As a precautionary measure, police asked residents and roadside vendors to extinguish burning bonfires in the vicinity, citing the risk of ignition. Security around the installation was tightened and movement in the area restricted.

Traffic on the Achalganj-Unnao road was halted after police put up barricades nearly a kilometre away from the site to prevent vehicles from e...