An underground pipeline carrying hot water ruptured in western Seoul on Tuesday, suspending heating in the area for 17 hours.

Seoul Energy Corporation and the Yangcheon District Office said that two sections of the heating pipeline under a flower garden in an apartment complex in the Mokdong area ruptured.

Authorities received a report of steam coming out of the flower garden at around 8:50 a.m. Tuesday and repaired the ruptured pipe by 6 p.m., but another rupture was found 20 meters from the first site when they resumed heating service through the repaired pipe. 

Heating had been suspended for 18-hundred households in the Mokdong area for 17 hours. 

The repair work continued until 2 a.m. Wednesday and the heating service was resumed at 2:30 a.m. 

The accident comes a week after an underground heating pipe burst near a subway station in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, killing one and injuring about 40 others.