‘The smell is terrible’: toxic foam clouds float through streets of Bogotá suburb

A woman moves away from the foam by her house in Mosquera. Authorities have warned locals against getting too close to the foam. Photograph: Luisa González/Reuters

A vast blanket of foul-smelling toxic foam has overflowed a polluted river near the Colombian capital Bogotá, covering homes and businesses, and sending residents fleeing from cloud-like fragments as they drift through the streets.

“The smell is terrible – [and] we’ve had to put up with this foam for a long time,” community leader Luz Mariela Gómez told local television channels. “We’re running a risk. Someone could fall down there and we won’t be able to find them.”