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MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's state-owned oil company said Friday it suffered a rupture in an undersea gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, sending flames boiling to the surface in the Gulf waters.

The leak near dawn Friday occurred about 150 yards from a drilling platform. The company said it had brought the gas leak under control about five hours later.

But the accident gave rise to the strange sight of roiling balls of flame boiling up from below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

It was unclear how much environmental damage the gas leak and oceanic fireball had caused.

Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote that "the frightening footage of the Gulf of Mexico is showing the world that offshore drilling is dirty and dangerous."

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