Performers and audience members found themselves drenched in vegetable oil just minutes into a performance by famous entertainment company Cirque du Soleil last Friday (Sept 7).

ABC News reported that a mechanical issue at a staging of the show in Washington had caused a hose to break loose in the hydraulics of the stage, spraying vegetable oil everywhere.

As a result, the show - titled Volta - was cancelled.

Cirque du Soleil said that nobody was injured in the incident, and that the oil "posed no risk" to the health of audience members.

It also added that audience members affected were "escorted outside the Big Top by Cirque du Soleil employees and offered assistance".

Instagram user chasecostello, who was seated in the audience, posted a video of his arm covered in oil and a spray of oil shooting out on the stage.

"Sitting at the cirque show and this happens in the opening act," he wrote. "Everything I have on is soaked in hydraulic oil... I'm soaking in oil."

Another audience member said the show was cancelled just 30 minutes into the performance. Others posted photos of rows of seats covered in oil.

"We apologise for this incident and will automatically reimburse all guests who had purchased tickets for the cancelled show," Cirque du Soleil said.

This is not the first time an accident has occurred during a performance of Volta. On March 17 this year, an aeriallist fell to his death while suspended by straps above the stage during a show in Tampa, Florida.

Separately, in May, a Cirque du Soleil performance in Singapore, titled Toruk - The First Flight, was disrupted after a performer was accidentally hit by a colleague during a choreographed battle scene.