SAN DIEGO (AP) - A ruptured gas pipeline in San Diego has prompted the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes and shut down a five-mile (eight-kilometer) stretch of freeway.
San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Alec Phillipp said a construction worker accidentally drilled into a 20-inch pipeline Wednesday morning near the Fashion Valley Mall in Mission Valley.
Phillipp says homes and business within a half-mile radius of the leak were evacuated. He says about 3,300 people live in that area.
Authorities also have closed State Route 163 between Interstate 8 and Interstate 805.
San Diego Gas & Electric workers are on the scene but Phillipp says gas was still spewing from the pipe by late afternoon.
He says the evacuation order will be lifted once all the gas trapped in the pipeline empties.
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