The Yangtze River in Chongqing has turned a worrying, blood-red colour.
The Yangtze, China's longest and most mystical rivers, has long been the centre of folklore, intrigue and fascination - perhaps even more so now that it has turned a grizzly blood-red colour. Many tourists and locals have been taking photos and samples of the sanguineous stream.
The Yuzhong and Banan District Environmental Protection Bureau staff told reporters that, although the river that flows through Chongqing (one of China's largest inland municipalities) is, indeed, redder than usual, it showed no signs of illegal sewage dumping. Speculators think upstream flooding is to blame, although the exact cause of the colour change is still under investigation.
In China, portentous natural phenomena, such as earthquakes and flooding, have long been associated with the death of a national leader - for example, the Tangshan earthquake which preceded Mao's death in 1976.