A video that got the rumour mill going about the possibility of China's own Loch Ness monster has been deflated.
The footage shows what appeared to be a long black sea creature slithering among the waves near the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province, according to the South China Morning Post.
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The video whipped Chinese social media users into a frenzy and was viewed more than 32 million times since it surfaced last Friday.
State broadcaster CCTV and China Daily reported on the video and dubbed the object the "Three Gorges Water Monster".
One theory was the monster had been created by pollution, and what viewers could see in the video was only the top of the much larger pollution.
On Tuesday, a group of workers fished out the 'monster', which turned out to be a 20-metre-long industrial airbag. It was likely it had been discarded from a shipyard.
Earlier this month, a team of New Zealand scientists released their study about Scotland's original Loch Ness monster.
They revealed there was no evidence the monster exists.
"I think we can be fairly sure there is probably not a giant scaly reptile swimming around in Loch Ness," Professor Neil Gemmell told media.
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However, Prof Gemmell told The AM Show there is still doubt surrounding the monster's existence.
"Hope will stay alive because there's always uncertainty in these studies," he said.
Newshub.
