People are being urged not to flush nappies, oils and grease down their toilets, after a sewer blockage turned parts of the river Wensum a funny colour.

Anglian Water and the Environment Agency were called to a dyke near the Dolphin bridge in Mile Cross at about 10am today, and workmen are currently on scene fixing the problem.

Ron Green, 77, who lives in Old Palace Road, spotted the discolouration of the water and contacted the Environment Agency.

He said: 'The water in that dyke is usually clear as it comes from the drains, but this time it was a beigey/white colour, It was stinking as well.

'This dyke is often used by fishermen but the fish would all be dead now. Kids playing around there so it's dangerous. I just hope that they find out who was responsible do it does not happen again.'

Antony Innes, a spokesman for Anglian Water, said workmen were now on scene and expected to clear out the sewage by the end of the day.

He said: 'We were alerted to a sewer blockage in Hemming Way, which caused a sewer overflow into a small dyke.

'This blockage was caused by large amounts of waste fats, oils and greases and what we call 'rag'; things like wipes and nappies that shouldn't be put into the sewers but often are.

'Unfortunately this caused sewage to overflow into the dyke and a small quantity of highly diluted sewage to reach the river Wensum causing a slight discolouration.

'We have been working closely with the Environment Agency to clean out the dyke and remove the blockage.

'In this instance no customers have been affected by flooding the blockage caused. Nevertheless, sewage flooding has the potential to cause real misery and we would urge people to think carefully about what they put into their toilets and drains.'