Spain holiday resort horror as huge, bubbling mass turns sea brown
Council officials hoisted a yellow flag as a warning to sunbathers as the large brown blotch moved out across the water in Benalmadena, near Malaga in southern Spain
The sea off a popular Costa del Sol holiday resort turned an alarming brown colour, leaving tourists aghast.
Council officials quickly raised a yellow flag as a warning to sunbathers as the large brown blotch spread across the water. The bizarre incident occurred around midday yesterday at a stretch of beach in Benalmadena, near two hotels - the Globales Los Patos Park Hotel and Hotel Spa Benalmadena Palace.
A Spanish -speaking tourist watching from a beachfront balcony was seen pointing out the bubbles emerging from the centre of the discoloured water to a companion.
Council chiefs confirmed overnight that yellow warning flags had been raised when the sea started turning brown, attributing the discolouration to a broken water pipe and assuring the public that there was no danger to public health.
Benalmadena Town Hall released a statement saying: "Public water firm Acosol reported an incident that occurred around midday yesterday in its upstream drinking water supply network in the municipality."
After detecting the incident, the water leak was immediately stopped before the impact of the incident was studied and repair work began. " Describing the affected section of pipe as "quite old and deteriorated", it added: "The clean, drinkable water has been channelled naturally into the sea.
"It is drinking water and the image it produced is the result of the natural dragging of earth towards the sea, without any type of contamination as it comes from a high water pipe. The town council put up yellow flags as a precaution for bathing. Later, after the situation returned to normal, a green flag was put up and work continued on repairing the fault."
This council statement was issued after footage emerged of torrents of water gushing out of the burst pipe and heading down towards the sea.
One local, expressing concern about the loss of a precious resource in a region which is increasingly affected by drought, said on social media: "How many litres of water are going to be lost before the problem is fixed?" Another wrote sarcastically: "And the council turns off the beach showers to raise awareness among people."
The incident is not the only one that has been causing potential swimmers' stomachs to turn. Last week sunseekers were left horrified when dozens of dead rats ended up floating in the sea. Following a heavy downpour, the bloated rodents began to bob off a beach in Spain's Costa Blanca. The overburdened local sewage system has been blamed for the disgusting scenes facing beachgoers near Alicante's Coco and Urbanova beaches.
Rats were pictured lying dead on the sand at Urbanova beach, three miles south of Alicante City Centre. Others were filmed floating lifeless in the water. Dead rats were also spotted near the sailing school at Alicante's Real Club de Regatas.
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