Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the online meeting with members of the government at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, on April 15, 2020. (Kremlin photo)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a state of emergency and criticized a subsidiary of metals giant Norilsk Nickel after a massive diesel spill into a Siberian river.

The spill of over 20,000 tons of diesel fuel took place on Friday. A fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant near the city of Norilsk, located above the Arctic Circle, and leaked into a nearby river.

The accident is the second largest in modern Russian history in terms of volume, World Wildlife Fund expert Alexei Knizhnikov told AFP.

It is only exceeded by a crude oil spill in the northwestern region of Komi that took place in 1994, he said.

During a televised video conference, Putin lambasted the head of the Norilsk Nickel subsidiary that runs the power plant, NTEK, after officials said it failed to report the incident.

Putin asked NTEK chief Sergei Lipin in an unusually stern dressing-down.

Norilsk Nickel said in a statement that NTEK had reported what happened in a "timely and proper" way.

Putin said he agreed that a national state of emergency was needed to call in more resources for the cleanup effort.

AFP