A number of people living in Utrecht were left feeling extremely confused and rather disgusted on Wednesday evening when they became aware of a fairly potent and odious stench. 

Dutch city plagued by awful smell

Emergency services in the Dutch city received a number of reports from various residents on Wednesday evening after a particularly bad smell spread across several parts of the city. Locals believed the smell was coming from the sewers. 

The fire brigade quickly carried out a number of tests in order to ensure that the smell wasn’t dangerous or hazardous - just unpleasant - before the City Works Department (Dienst Stadwerken) flushed the sewage in order to rid the lovely inhabitants of the city of the unpleasant odour. 

Unusual and unpleasant smells across Europe

While the issue may seem like only a small (and rather silly) inconvenience for the municipality and people of Utrecht, the topic of bad smells has cropped up a couple of times in the news recently.

In Switzerland, for example, a flight had to make an emergency landing after pilots detected an unusual smell in the cockpit, and travellers at various train stations have been subjected to a particularly powerful stench.