Workers accidentally hit a gas pipe in downtown Brooklyn Saturday morning, starting a leak that shut down traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, officials said.
A high-pressure pipe was struck with a backhoe during construction work at Jay Street and Tillary Street, near the entrance of the bridge, a Fire Department source said.
The NYPD closed traffic over the Brooklyn Bridge as a precaution, and the Eastern District Courthouse on Cadman Plaza East was also evacuated.
Normal traffic has since resumed over the Brooklyn Bridge.
The mishap comes just days after a massive gas explosion at an East Village building sparked an inferno that destroyed it and two adjacent buildings.
“It’s scary, you don’t want another tragedy like to happen again,” said Terrence Samways, 44, a building engineer who works on nearby Adams Street. “You’re lucky it didn’t blow up right then and there.”
Tourists Jen Radsdale, 24,a nd JoeL Costa, 24, said they couldn’t walk over the Brooklyn Bridge because of the gas leak– and that they were near the scene of the East Village explosion when it happened.
“We’ve been literally blown away by gas and smoke since we’ve been here,” said Costa.