By Tim Binnall
Traffic in a Chinese city ground to a halt earlier this week when a mysterious foam substance suddenly started spewing out of the sewer and filled the street. The strange scene reportedly unfolded in the community of Xi'an on Tuesday afternoon. While the emergence of the foam offered a somewhat wintry sight, the weird incident was made far less wondrous by the fact that the material was described by residents as having "a strong pungent smell."
In response to the odd outbreak, which wound up stretching a whopping 650 feet down the road, city officials enlisted seven trucks to wash the street and wipe away the material. Their efforts proved to be particularly difficult as the soapy substance kept emerging from the sewer at a remarkable rate and one onlooker even observed a veritable geyser of foam that soared to around 150 feet in the air. Authorities who took samples of the material suggested that it probably came from a mishap involving some kind of washing detergent.