50-metre long fatberg weighing 26 tonnes found beneath Chinatown

A 50-metre long fatberg has been discovered beneath the streets of Chinatown in central London.

The 26-tonne solid mass of wet wipes, nappies, fat and oil weighs more than two double-decker buses and was found in a sewer underneath Lisle Street in Soho.

Thames Water engineers are preparing to remove the fatberg, which is blocking the Victorian sewer beneath a street lined with restaurants, in a few weeks’ time.

It will have to be removed at weekends and during the evenings because the road is usually packed with tourists visiting the area or trucks dropping off deliveries.

Waste network manager at Thames Water Alex Saunders said inspectors would be visiting the restaurants to make them aware of their “legal and moral responsibilities” when it came to washing fat, oil and grease down sinks.

He said they would be encouraging restaurant owners to get such waste transported to a recycling site in Stratford where it could be turned into biodegradable fuel.

Mr Saunders said: “I have seen and touched the fatberg first hand and it is not nice. It’s frustrating as these situations are totally avoidable and caused by fat, oil and grease being washed down sinks and wipes flushed down the loo.”

Earlier this month, a “monster” fatberg weighing 130 tonnes and believed to be one of the “biggest ever” was found in Whitechapel.

The 250-metre long solid mass weighed the same as 11 double-decker buses and was blocking a stretch of Victoria sewer more than twice the length of two Wembley football pitches.

Thames Water expects to finish work to remove the Whitechapel fatberg in October before sending off all the gloop to the plant in Stratford where it will be converted into 10,000 litres of biodiesel.