It’s one of the strangest sights locals of one Polish town may ever report to authorities as the sewers bubbled and started weeping massive pools of blood drenching the streets. But was this the manifestation of some doomsday indicator or could there be a logical explanation for something seeming as apocalyptic as this?
After authorities descended on the scene they confirmed that not only was something strange going on, but the substance rolling up from the sewers was indeed blood – in such quantities that it would be difficult to imagine where the strange substance could have amassed from. And as locals reeled in horror from the sight and the incident was investigated, thoughts soon turned to the local meat packing plant – and for a day it seemed these portents turned from supernatural to an issue of simple public health. For the moment, the plant itself is being blamed by understandably vexed locals as investigators unravel what exactly happened – and how.
Many countries within the EU are under pressure to implement stricter guidelines for things like meat processing for the sake of local environments as well as public health and safety. The latest apocalyptic display is thought to have been caused partially by a blocked drain, but sewers could have been carrying unprocessed blood from the plant for an undetermined period prior to the event.
Blood in the streets has been a phrase used often by historians, but rarely with quite the same literal magnitude as this. How often do we read in historical accounts of times when the streets ran red with blood during a time of civil uprising or war? But some of the occasions during which there was blood found in the streets the cause was somewhat less well understood.
For example, in 2001 in Kerala India the streets found themselves pelted with blood not from the ground, but rather from the skies. As samples were collected of the mysterious substance the possibilities quickly outpaced the explanations. It was quickly ascertained that whatever the cause, the rain from the heavens included tiny cells that did look under an electron microscope, uncannily like blood. And then there are the historical accounts of blood raining both in actual testimony from the historians themselves and from the folk tales that may contain a droplet of truth in them.
During the exorcisms of poltergeists blood is said to spontaneously come from various locations from walls to faucets which will suddenly become stained with the stuff. People commonly report similarly seeing blood at sites of holy relics, such as angels and statues of Mary which are said to weep blood spontaneously.
Only for now it appears a tentative official explanation has come to supplant any theories that the Earth itself may be somehow emanating this vile substance in the streets. And if it were to be shown that the blood originated from some other mysterious source, the official reports would likely immediately reflect this regardless of the concerns of locals, right? Well, maybe not.