A fresh oil leak has occurred off the coast of Peru -- already cleaning up after a major crude spill 10 days earlier -- during work on an underwater refinery pipeline, the government said Wednesday.

The leak occurred Tuesday during work at the La Pampilla refinery, owned by Spanish company Repsol, the environment ministry said.

It occurred during "work being done prior to the removal of the PLEM (pipeline end manifolds), used for underwater collection and distribution" between the refinery and ships, the ministry's OEFA environment monitoring agency said.

It did not say how many liters were spilled.

A tanker was offloading crude at the same refinery in Ventanilla, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Lima, when it spilled 6,000 barrels into the ocean on January 15, Repsol says.

The tanker had been hit by waves triggered by a volcanic eruption near Tonga.

The new leak happened as hundreds of volunteers and hired hands raced against the clock to clean beaches after the spill from the Italian-flagged tanker "Mare Doricum".

Peru has declared an environmental emergency after almost 264,000 gallons (1.2 million liters) of crude oil spilled into the sea on that occasion.

The environment ministry said Sunday that more than 180 hectares -- equivalent to around 270 soccer fields -- of beach and 713 hectares of sea were affected, as sea currents spread the spilled oil along the coast.

Countless birds and marine creatures have been killed, the tourism and fishing industries hit, and the health ministry has warned would-be bathers to stay away from at least 21 affected beaches.

The Peruvian Navy said in a statement that on Tuesday, during a flyover to monitor the area affected by the first spill, an "oily spot" was observed near the pipeline.

It consulted Repsol, which told it a leak had occurred "despite work having been done to remove the crude prior to inspection and repair" of the pipeline.

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