<p>Six million people in southwest Colombia are without access to natural gas as of Wednesday, due to what authorities are calling a "thermal anomaly" possibly affecting pipelines.</p>.<p>Since midday, there had been "a total restriction on the natural gas service" in the western departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, utility Gases de Occidente said.</p>.<p>The crisis also affects five other departments in the center and southwest of the country, according to the mines ministry.</p>.<p>According to the pipeline company, Transportadora de Gas Internacional, the anomaly that shut down the gas pipelines could be "the product of an underground fire" in the area near a volcano and it could take a week to restore service.</p>.<p>Two-thirds of Colombia's 50 million people depend on the fuel for cooking and other uses.</p>.<p>"This brings... a crisis that we had not experienced for a long time," Jorge Ivan Ospina, the mayor of Cali, Colombia's third largest city, where more than 1.3 million users are affected, told the media.</p>.<p>Some residents switched to cooking with firewood and others stood in long lines to buy electric stoves, according to images shared on social media. In addition, several gas-powered public transportation vehicles have stopped working.</p>
<p>Six million people in southwest Colombia are without access to natural gas as of Wednesday, due to what authorities are calling a "thermal anomaly" possibly affecting pipelines.</p>.<p>Since midday, there had been "a total restriction on the natural gas service" in the western departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, utility Gases de Occidente said.</p>.<p>The crisis also affects five other departments in the center and southwest of the country, according to the mines ministry.</p>.<p>According to the pipeline company, Transportadora de Gas Internacional, the anomaly that shut down the gas pipelines could be "the product of an underground fire" in the area near a volcano and it could take a week to restore service.</p>.<p>Two-thirds of Colombia's 50 million people depend on the fuel for cooking and other uses.</p>.<p>"This brings... a crisis that we had not experienced for a long time," Jorge Ivan Ospina, the mayor of Cali, Colombia's third largest city, where more than 1.3 million users are affected, told the media.</p>.<p>Some residents switched to cooking with firewood and others stood in long lines to buy electric stoves, according to images shared on social media. In addition, several gas-powered public transportation vehicles have stopped working.</p>