A river in Argentina has turned blood red, sparking panic among residents over the Biblical plague-like phenomenon.
Images of the Sarandí Canal on the outskirts of Buenos Aires showed the waterway’s eerie discoloration on Thursday.
A local resident said that she and others awoke to a foul odor Thursday around 5:30am.
‘We looked at the river and it was red, totally red,’ Maria Ducomls told the Associated Press.
‘It looked like a river of blood because, I mean, we have never seen it in those conditions.’
A longtime resident told Clarín newspaper that the canal’s water in the past had turned yellow and caused her family to feel sick.
‘My husband came out of our house and told me that everything was red,’ she explained.
‘Although it is red, other times it was yellow, with an acidic smell that makes us sick even in the throat,’ she explained.
An aerial view shows the blood-red Sarandí Canal on the outskirts of Buenos Aires
Local residents reported waking up to a foul odor on Thursday. ”It looked like a river of blood,’ a resident said
Initial reports indicated that ‘some type of organic dye’ could have spilled into the waterway
The Buenos Aires Ministry of Environment immediately dispatched a team of agents to canal, where samples were taken, the agency told Perfil newspaper.
Initial reports indicated that ‘it could be some type of organic dye.’
A local government source told La Nación newspaper that a spill may have originated from a factory or warehouse.
The person said that investigators inspected buildings located near the canal.
‘They will have to carry out expert assessments and decide on the appropriate measures,’ the source said.
The phenomenon comes a week after a report by online news site Infobae found that there was a 30 percent increase in toxic spills over the last two years in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.
At least four incidents were reported over the last 15 days.
The study showed that 264 gallons of corrosive lactic acid, 132 gallons of phosphoric acid and 110 pounds of dichlorinated chlorine were spilled in the region.