French Stench Overwhelms London

Legend has it the French aren't so keen on deodorant, but this is really going overboard.

A foul smell enveloped London and the south east today but it has been blamed on a cloud of pungent fumes wafting over from France.

Experts warned the hundreds of thousands who wrinkled up their noses this morning not to panic.

The emergency services were flooded with calls from people across the capital who were alarmed by the stench.

The smell was caused by strange weather conditions bringing winds from France and continental Europe.

People reported that the stench was affecting the whole of London as well as Surrey, Berkshire, Kent and Hertfordshire.

The Met Office said the smell was caused by a combination of agricultural and industrial pollution carried on the wind from Northern Europe.

Sarah Holland, a forecaster for the Met Office, said: "Over the last few days, fresh winds have been blowing eastwards.

"The origins of the smell come from Europe and have brought in pollution.

"When the wind blows from the west, it is coming from the Atlantic so it brings in virtually no pollution, but when it is eastwards it is coming across land."

Remarkably, nobody has blamed global warming. Give it time.

Others are pointing the finger at Germany.

A mysterious pong that wafted over vast swathes of the South East this morning is being blamed on easterly winds carrying malodours from industrial areas on the continent.

The 'Euro-whiff', as the Met Office is calling it, has been smelt in East Anglia, right across the southern counties and as far west as Devon since drifting across the Channel in the early hours of this morning.

Factories in areas of northern Germany and the Netherlands were the most likely cause of the whiff, which has described variously as like manure or sulphur, the cause of 'rotten egg smell'. There had been no increase in air pollutants, the Met Office said.

Rotten egg smell? Must be what we used to get a lot of along the New Jersey Turnpike years ago.