Salva Mubarak Senior Features Writer

In what became a nightmare scenario (or dream, depending on your love for red wine), a raging river of red wine began flowing through the streets of a small Portuguese village after two tanks burst at a nearby distillery.

Sao Lourenco do Bairro, a small village in Northern Portugal, had a river of nearly 600,000 gallons (almost 23 lakh litres) of red wine flowing unexpectedly through its streets on Sunday. Reportedly, two tanks owned by the local Levira Distillery burst and caused the disaster.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported and the local firefighting department managed to divert the river to nearby fields before it could enter the Crema River.

The distillery issued a statement, saying, “We assume full responsibility for the costs associated with cleaning and repairing the damage, having teams do so immediately. We are committed to resolving this situation as quickly as possible.”

The flash flood of alcohol was a direct cause of the wine surplus crisis in Europe. The oversupply of wine in the face of decreasing demands has led to large quantities of wine being stored in facilities that are ill-equipped to handle it. Portugal and France have been among the countries that have responded to the crisis by converting the surplus wine to other uses.