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Utrecht residents left befuddled (and disgusted) by bad smell
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Utrecht residents left befuddled (and disgusted) by bad smell

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© 2025 IamExpat Media B.V.
© 2025 IamExpat Media B.V.
Oct 13, 2022
Victoria Séveno
Victoria grew up in Amsterdam, before moving to the UK to study English and Related Literature at the University of York and completing her NCTJ course at the Press Association in London. She has a love for all things movies, animals, and food. Read more

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.

By Victoria Séveno