Residents, business owners and holidaymakers had to walk through human faeces after raw sewage started gurgling out of a drain cover in the middle of a pavement.
While Cornwall has been in drought for weeks, rain made an intermittent appearance again across the county last week.
On Thursday morning (August 20) just after 11am, and following a 10-minute downpour, excrement started bubbling out of a manhole cover on Cliff Road in Newquay.
One local business owner filmed the sewage spill and sent CornwallLivethe footage.
You can see faeces and toilet paper and sewage water coming out from underneath the drain cover.
The local business owner can be heard saying: "Cliff Road, Newquay. S**t coming out of the pavement everywhere. People have to walk through it."
The next day, in the early hours, the same trader sent us a video update of the situation. In his second video you can see that the human turds and toilet paper have been washed off the pavement but sewage water still gurgles out of the drain cover.
He said: "They came and cleaned it but it's still leaking out at the top and coming out of this one as well."
South West Water (SWW) said the sewage spill in the middle of a busy pavement in a popular seaside town like Newquay in the middle of a drought with a hosepipe ban in place during the summer holidays was due to a "blockage in the sewer".
It is not the first time this stretch of pavement has been flooded with raw sewage. In a previous incident in October 2024, diners and shoppers were forced to walk through human poo and sanitary products when the drain overflowed.
On that occasion the incident had followed a period of heavy rain.
This time round, Cornwall has had very little rain for weeks.
The water company said sewers are designed to carry wastewater at all times and are therefore never 'dry'.
A spokesperson for SWW said: "Our teams have identified a blockage in the sewer and cleared the footpath yesterday, with further cleaning activities arranged for this evening.
"Blockages can be caused by a build-up of items such as wet wipes, fats, oils and grease in the sewer network, which is why we encourage customers to only flush the three P's – pee, poo and paper and dispose of anything else in the bin."
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Sewage Spill on Newquay Street After 10-Minute Downpour