Nightmare on Sesame Street as Ernie teddy blocks Bristol sewer

A familiar TV character gave sewer workers in Bristol a Halloween fright, becoming a blockage horror story.

Ernie from Sesame Street - in teddy form - spooked Wessex Water workers as they carried out a CCTV survey of a sewer to find the cause of the blockage.

They removed the surprise visitor, but were shocked to find the sewer was still blocked further down the line.

An additional survey revealed the grisly remains of a second teddy. The obstruction was finally cleared after pulling both toys out of the sewerage network.

A Wessex Water spokesman said: “We never know what we’ll find lurking in the sewers when we attend to clear a blockage, but our team certainly wasn’t expecting this.

"Although blockages are commonly caused by wet wipes and other sanitary items that do not break down, we emphasise the importance of thinking twice about what else you flush down the loo.”

Wessex Water says it clears 13,000 sewer blockages that can wreck homes and harm the environment every year.