CUAUTITLAN IZCALLI, Mexico – A Mexican gas pipeline caught fire Friday in an accident near the capital, sending flames more than 100 feet into the air and closing a main highway into the city.

Two men were injured at the fire in the industrial town of Cuautitlan Izcalli, a civil protection official told Reuters.

Authorities believe construction workers accidentally pierced the pipeline while they laid foundations for a bridge nearby.

“Two valves (feeding the pipeline) have been closed and flames are dying out,” the official said.

State energy company Pemex said a private company operated the line.

A Mexican leftist rebel group last year set off bombs at gas and oil pipelines, disrupting supplies of crude oil and cutting off natural gas supplies to hundreds of manufacturers.

(Reporting by, Daniel Aguilar, Cyntia Barrera and Miguel Angel Gutierrez; editing by Jim Marshall)