Disappointment as 'Loch Ness Monster' turns out to be 20m-long airbag
China’s very own Loch Ness monster has turned out to be a 20-metre industrial airbag.
Matching some of the disappointment surrounding Britain’s original Nessie, the search for a prehistoric monster ended when workers fished out a large piece of black rubbish from the Yangtze river.
The latest mystery started when a long, black object was captured on video.
Suitably grainy showed what appeared to be a long black sea creature slithering in the water close to the Three Gorges Dam.
The video instantly became a social media hit.
It has been viewed more than 30 million times since being posted online and the story was also covered by most Chinese media.
The “monster” was soon dubbed the “Three Gorges Water Monster”, many speculating it was a giant water snake.
However, any dreams of a rival Nessie were shattered by the workmen.
Just for good measure, photos from local media also showed another large piece of black rubbish being washed up close to the alleged sighting.
The Yangtze, Asia’s longest largest river, stretching from the edge of Tibet to China’s east coast.
It is considered to be one of the most polluted rivers as a result of industrial growth and overfishing.
The Chinese discovery comes just weeks after new research at Loch Ness in Scotland.
A study by University of Otago geneticist, Professor Neil Gemmell, concluded that Nessie might be a giant eel.
He made his findings after analysing 250 samples of water taken from Loch Ness.
“Is it possible there’s a giant eel? Maybe. We don’t know if the DNA is gigantic or just many small eels,” said Gemmell.
"They normally grow to four to six metres in length, and people say they’re observing something much larger than that.”
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