More than two tonnes of semolina fell on a seaside town this month after a factory silo overfilled, malfunctioned and blasted the grain into the air, covering the streets of Great Yarmouth in a white dust. The freak occurrence took place just after 4:00 am on 26 October at Pasta Foods, on Pasteur Road. At 9:00 am Yarmouth Borough Council began trying to wash the semolina off the pavements, but rather than clean it away the water simply turned it into the much maligned school dinners dessert. Faced with pavements and roads like "an ice rink", the council were forced to close pedestrian access to the Haven Bridge and the roads around Hall Quay, and bring in industrial cleaners.
The council's head of environmental health, John Hemsworth said, "Everywhere was just white, even the grass. We had about 10-15 people trying to clear it up, but as soon as it got wet it became more of a problem. First it got sticky, then slippy and then it was dangerous to walk on, so we had to close off the pavements." In order to deal with the complicated situation, the council were forced to get permission from the Environment Agency to put the semolina in the river, then permission from Anglian Water to put it into the drains.
In other dessert news, a pile of jelly left by a road in Germany caused a major security alert after it was mistaken for toxic waste. A large area near the town of Halle was cordoned off after a "flabby red, orange and green substance" was found by the road. Fire officers in protective suits spent two hours inspecting the substance before concluding it was jelly. The spillage was traced to a nearby wedding, and the newly-wed groom was informed of the alert and promised to clean up the mess.
