A gas leak covered a street in white clouds causing panic among villagers in.

The ghostly scene followed after a nearby fire extinguisher factory had an issue with a machine in Banten province on July 6.

The billowing CO2 gas affected visibility across a busy road while some frantic villagers left the area fearing that it could be poisonous.

Footage shows riders carefully passing through the road covered in smoke as heavy traffic jam built on the opposite lane.

Resident Yuda Grey: ‘It was so scary. It was the first time that happened here. The road was jammed because of the smoke.

Karawaci Sector Police Chief Commissioner Hasoloan Sitimorang said the clouds of smoke was caused by a CO2 leak at a factory.

He said: ‘It happened because there was a liquid CO2 leak. One of the employees made a mistake in opening the gas tap.'

Despite causing a massive traffic jam in the area, Sitimorang said the smoke did not last more than five minutes.

He said: ‘It lasted for only a few minutes, but the traffic jam caused is quite long.

The white smoke slowly dissipated and traffic returned to normal.

Due to this incident, the police conducted an investigation into the company.

Commissioner Sitimorang said: ‘We asked them to avoid similar incidents in the future. No one was hurt but it caused inconvenience to many people.'