Enough fat to fill a double-decker bus has been discovered clogging up a Kingston sewage pipe.
The 15-tonne blockage, composed of fat and wet wipes flushed away from homes and businesses, was found under London Road by Thames Water investigators earlier this month.
Gordon Hailwood, waste contracts supervisor for Thames Water, said: “We've never seen a single, congealed lump of lard this big clogging our sewers before.
“The sewer was almost completely clogged with over 15 tonnes of fat.
“If we hadn’t discovered it in time, raw sewage could have started spurting out of manholes across the whole of Kingston.”
Investigators were sent in after residents complained of trouble flushing their toilets.
The blockage, dubbed a "fatberg" by investigators, has now been cleared.
Twenty metres of pipe was damaged by the clog after the pipe’s capacity was reduced to just five percent of normal flow.
Repair works will disrupt traffic for six weeks, with two westbound lanes in London Road due to be closed from Monday, August 5.
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