180-Foot Fountain of Feces Erupts From Sewer in Dramatic Video - Newsweek

A powerful geyser of sewage has reportedly erupted from an underground pipeline in Russia, blasting wastewater and debris more than 180 feet into the air, a video posted to a Russian Telegram channel and shared online shows.

The clip shows a "fountain" surging for several minutes, spraying apparently contaminated water and debris over buildings, vehicles, and public spaces. It looked to occur near a busy intersection and reached up to the 17th story of an adjacent high-rise building, and higher than a nearby crane.

Residential buildings and those under construction were doused by the rupture in the Novaya Moskva district of Moscow, The Mirror reported.

The video was shared online by several people including the former interior minister of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, a self-described "Ukrainian patriot," who shared three video clips of the incident on his X, formerly Twitter, page.

Newsweek contacted Gazprom, a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation, via email on Monday for further comment.

Moscow Telegram channels report that the sewage system in Moscow broke down.A "fountain" the height of a residential building is seen in one of Moscow's districts.A sh*t show, literally. pic.twitter.com/n8K30uAnJz

"Moscow Telegram channels report that the sewage system in Moscow broke down. A 'fountain' the height of a residential building is seen in one of Moscow's districts," Gerashchenko captioned his post, which has had more than 674,000 views. One of the clips has been viewed more than 920,000 times.

City officials have responded to the incident. Gazprom said in a statement that the incident happened due to a routine "air fumigation" clean-out procedure.

A new section of gas pipeline was being cleaned out in this way and representatives of the corporation said the situation was under control, The Mirror reported Gazprom as saying.

Local authorities are reported as working to contain the damage and minimize health risks to the area's residents. Cleanup crews and environmental agencies are expected to remain on site until the situation is fully contained.

This is not the first time there has been a reported sewer blast in a city center. In 2021, four people were injured in central China when a suspected sewer gas explosion caused a road to erupt underneath workers and passersby.

The incident happened near a maintenance hole cover at an intersection in Wuhan, Hubei province. The authorities at the time reported the incident as being linked to a suspected buildup of methane gas in the sewers.

The same year, as also reported by Newsweek, several videos recorded in the Lincoln Square area of Chicago appeared to show a mixture of sewage and water exploding over city streets as maintenance hole covers blew off following heavy rain and flooding.