A fire at a gas pipeline operated by Malaysia state energy firm Petronas injured 33 people on Tuesday on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur, authorities said.

Scores of people in Malaysia were being treated in hospitals on Tuesday after a huge fire broke out at a gas pipeline operated by state energy giant Petronas, showering flaming debris from the sky and shattering windows.

A burst gas pipe sent a column of flame shooting skyward in a suburb outside Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby homes. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights in central Selangor state was visible for kilometers.