Child's slide and scooters thrown into manhole blocking Hull sewer

It took six hours for the child's slide, scooters, traffic cone and other discarded items to be pulled out of the blocked sewer in Hull

A child's slide, two scooters and traffic cones are among the discarded objects which have been removed from a blocked sewer.

Yorkshire Water said its team spent six hours extracting the items, which were believed to have been tossed into a Hull sewer in Bransholme via a manhole.

The items caused sewage to back up in the network which has now been cleared.

Regional operations manager Lee Pinder appealed for unwanted items to be disposed in recycling centres or bins.

"Our teams deal with unusual blockages daily.

"These are usually caused by people flushing or throwing away items that should not be in the sewer, such as the scooters and old children's toys in this situation. We believe this was caused by someone lifting the manhole cover and throwing the items into the sewer before replacing it.

"Thankfully, in this instance our teams were able to respond quickly and remove the blockage before sewage backed up and caused pollution to the local environment.

"Blockages of this nature can lead to nearby customers being unable to flush their toilets, cause sewage to escape the network into properties and gardens, the local environment or nearby watercourses."

Yorkshire Water says millions of pounds is spent on dealing with the problem including this toy, which was thought to have been dropped down an open manhole last year

He said the company spent "millions of pounds every year" tackling the problem and urged customers to only flush "the three Ps - pee, poo and paper".

"It is important people consider the impact these items can have, and it is vital people contact us as soon as possible if they are aware of items being discarded in the sewer network."

Any unwanted toys, scooters or other household items "should be disposed of in bins or taken to recycling centres" he added.