Efforts are underway to clean up tons of pitch spreading to farmlands following a leak at an asphalt construction site in Turkey's Edirne on Thursday.

The leak stemmed from an explosion at an asphalt construction site near the village of Hasanağa in Edirne province, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known, the report said, adding that nearby agricultural areas were covered with pitch after a fuel oil boiler storing the asphalt component exploded on Wednesday.

After being notified of the incident, the gendarmerie in the village and teams from the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change were sent to the region. While the workers and teams at the construction site worked to clean up the agricultural lands where the pitch had spread, the pitch that had dried and hardened was lifted from the ground with the help of construction machinery and loaded onto trucks.

The agricultural fields the stream passes by and a creek near it turned black with the waste. It was stated that there are approximately 1,500 tons of fuel oil in the 5,500-ton pool. In the region, the investigations into the incident by the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Directorate, the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, the Special Provincial Administration and the gendarmerie teams will continue.

Hasanağa village head Mehmet Üstün told AA that several wheat fields were damaged due to the leak.

Noting that they are working to prevent the pitch from spreading further, Üstün said, "This is a fuel oil mixture used in asphalt construction, a material we call 'pitch.' They were storing it here. A 60-meter (197-foot) wall where this was stored was completely demolished, and 5,000 tons of asphalt material was spilled at once."

"It spread over an agricultural area of ​​about 30 decares (7.4 acres)," said Üstün, adding that mainly wheat and sunflowers are grown in the area.

"Company officials say that all damage and losses will be covered, and the waste will be removed from the fields," he said, expressing his concern that if the spill continues along the creek bed, it will flow into residential areas.

The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change also released a statement regarding the incident on its social media account.

"The bitumen that leaked from the asphalt construction site in Edirne into the agricultural fields was brought under control under the supervision of our provincial directorate. Cleaning efforts were started on the site by our ministry, and companies authorized to remove soil pollution were immediately dispatched to the region," the statement said.