A snake crawled into a gas pipeline linking Thailand and Malaysia, causing a short-circuit that triggered a fire and leak at the one billion-dollar facility, an official said today.

The fire was extinguished after 10 minutes and there was no major damage, said Somchai Kooyai, executive vice president of gas operator Trans Thai Malaysia.

Newspaper reports said the gas leak occurred at a station on the pipeline, causing a brief scare among nearby motorists.

The liquefied natural gas pipeline links Thailand's southern province of Songkhla and Malaysia's tourist island of Penang.