Dozens of motorbike drivers flocked the Nang Luong filling station in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District on Sunday night to complain and ask for refund as their engines had abruptly broken down after being filled up with its gasoline.

Pham Van Chinh said at around 9pm, he bought VND50,000 worth of petrol at the gas station, located at 104 Pho Quang, only to see his vehicle break down unexpectedly when he had driven for a little over 1km from the facility.

Chinh at first thought something had gone wrong with the motorbike’s spark plug, but even when a new plug was replaced, he still failed to ignite the vehicle.

He then removed the newly-filled petrol out of the bike, and stunned to see it contained what was later identified as water.

Similarly, Nguyen Tien Dat, another customer, said his motorbike stopped after traveling only 300m from the gas station.

Meanwhile, a motorbike repair facility near the Nang Luong station received four customers with the same incident that night, according to the owner Le Hiep.

“The engines all broke down due to the large content of water in the fuel,” he said.

Hiep said he had accompanied his customers to the filling station to complain. The attendants there accepted the request to pump the petrol out to a plastic tank, and again, the fuel was found to be tainted with water.

Head of the facility Luu Van Tho admitted that there was water in the A92 gasoline tank at the filling station.

But this was because “water from the afternoon rain had leaked into the tank,” he asserted.

“This is a technical problem. How could we dare to mix water in the petrol tank?” Tho said.

However, as observed by a Tuoi Tre reporter, the fuel tank at the facility is carefully covered with a shelter, while its lid is built higher than the ground.

Tho said he would refund the customers as well as paying the repair costs for them.