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Disappointment as China's 'Nessie' turns out to be a 20-metre long airbag

The "monster" was spotted by the Three Gorges Dam (Reuters)
The "monster" was spotted by the Three Gorges Dam (Reuters)

China’s very own Loch Ness monster has turned out to be a 20-metre industrial airbag.

Matching some of the disappointment surrounding Britain’s original Nessie, the search for a prehistoric monster ended when workers fished out a large piece of black rubbish from the Yangtze river.

The latest mystery started when a long, black object was captured on video.

Suitably grainy showed what appeared to be a long black sea creature slithering in the water close to the Three Gorges Dam.

The video instantly became a social media hit.

A man looks at the Eastern Star cruise ship being towed to a safer area, after it capsized in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River, in Huarong county, Hunan province, China, June 10, 2015. The ship was moved to another area on Wednesday, 10 kilometres from where it sank, to escape from the rapid currents, local media reported. Chinese investigators looking into last week's deadly capsizing of a packed cruise ship have collected a "multitude of first-hand evidence" and have interviewed many people including the captain, state media said on Wednesday. Picture taken June 10, 2015. REUTERS/China Daily  CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA
China's Nessie was "found" in the Yangtze River, (REUTERS/China Daily)

It has been viewed more than 30 million times since being posted online and the story was also covered by most Chinese media.

The “monster” was soon dubbed the “Three Gorges Water Monster”, many speculating it was a giant water snake.

However, any dreams of a rival Nessie were shattered by the workmen.

Just for good measure, photos from local media also showed another large piece of black rubbish being washed up close to the alleged sighting.

The Yangtze, Asia’s longest largest river, stretching from the edge of Tibet to China’s east coast.

It is considered to be one of the most polluted rivers as a result of industrial growth and overfishing.

The Chinese discovery comes just weeks after new research at Loch Ness in Scotland.

A study by University of Otago geneticist, Professor Neil Gemmell, concluded that Nessie might be a giant eel.

Researchers on Loch Ness
Researchers on Loch Ness

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He made his findings after analysing 250 samples of water taken from Loch Ness.

“"Is it possible there’s a giant eel? Maybe. We don’t know if the DNA is gigantic or just many small eels,” said Gemmell.

"They normally grow to four to six metres in length, and people say they’re observing something much larger than that.”

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