Japanese river turns blood red, alarming residents

Local residents took to social media and described the flowing red water as ‘gruesome’ and ‘venomous’

Visuals of the river in Nago city in Japan’s Okinawa showed the flowing water had turned deep red in colour (The 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters/AFP/Getty)

A food colouring leak in a port in Japan left a flowing river blood red in colour, alarming residents about the mysterious change.

Visuals of the river in Nago city in Japan’s Okinawa showed that the water had turned deep red in colour.

Officials of a beer factory later confirmed that a food colouring dye had leaked into the river through the rain gutter but did not pose any health risks.

Beer factory Orion Breweries issued a statement shortly after and apologised for “causing enormous trouble and worry”.

Local residents took to social media and described the flowing red water as “gruesome” and “venomous”.

The leak reportedly started in one of the cooling systems of the brewery which likely occurred on Tuesday. It was stopped at around 9.30am local time, according to Japanese media reports.

Officials at the brewery said the chemical propylene glycol had resulted in the colour change. The chemical is used as a food additive by factories in the cooling process.

Commonly used in drug and cosmetic industries, it is “generally recognised as safe”, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has said.

The brewery company’s president Hajime Murano said the firm was investigating how the leak had occurred. The official added that they would take steps in future to prevent such a leakage from occuring again.

A local health official said “no major impact on the environment” was expected from the leak, reported the Okinawa Times newspaper.

The Japanese resort city Nago is known for fishing ports and pineapple farms.