Residents and holidaymakers had to walk through a river of sewage after it began running through a high street in Cornwall over the bank holiday weekend.
Pictures shared with Cornwall Live show a disgusting stream of sewage and water along the pavement, right outside of people's homes and businesses in Fowey.
Although Cornwall has faced months of exceptional heat and dry weather, which even prompted an emergency alert from the government, the first spot of rain saw sewage fill the street.
One witness said the sewage began running down the street around 3pm just in time for "prime footfall" in the town.
Telling CornwallLive, they said: "In my experience, I’ve only lived here five years, it hasn’t happened through the street before."
Pictures show what appears to be toilet paper left across the road, while sewage water continues to flow beneath the kerb.
A spokesperson for South West Water (SWW) said "final effluent", which is the cleaned and treated water, entered Fore Street in Fowey after high tides and heavy rainfall placed "significant pressure on the local sewer network".
The bank holiday weekend saw patches of torrential rain move across the county, but it was not a complete weekend washout.
The Met Office said Fowey saw rain around 8pm on Sunday (August 30) and around 2am on Monday (August 31).
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) reports there has been a recent discharge at Town Quay pumping station.
According to SAS and SWW data, there was a sewage discharge for one hour and 40 minutes on Tuesday morning.
Data also show that yesterday (August 31), sewage was discharged for over seven hours.
CornwallLive has previously reported several incidents where streets have been flooded with sewage after periods of heavy rain.
After an inspection at the Town Quay pumping station, SWW found "no issues".
The SWW spokesperson said: "We are reviewing the event as part of our ongoing work to improve network resilience."
The water company explains that when the sewage system becomes "too full", which can happen after heavy rain, storm overflows release the excess to prevent sewage from flooding into people's homes and gardens.
Sewage Stream Floods Fowey High Street