'Blood Rain' Shocks Residents in Russian City
Residents of the Russian city of Norilsk were surprised and frightened recently when they woke up to a sight of cars bathed in what some have termed as "blood rain."
Cars located in the parking lot of the Nadezhdinsky nickel and copper processing plant were the ones found covered by the blood-red rain droplets, The Siberian Times reported.
It wasn't just the cars that were covered in the strange precipitation as the parking lot ground was also soaked with the mysterious substance.
Upon seeing the cars covered in crimson droplets of rain, residents near the processing plant took photos and videos of the cars and the parking lot to document the occurrence.
The video embedded below provides up-close looks at the cars and ground blanketed in the red rain droplets.
With concerns growing over why "blood rain" fell out of the sky, the owners of the Nadezhdinsky plant have come out to provide an explanation for why this unusual event took place.
According to Nornickel, the owners of the plant, the red rain is not caused by droplets of blood falling from the sky. Instead, the atypical color of the rain droplets is the result of rust.
More specifically, the rain was tinged by the rust particles which were recently removed from the roof of one of the plant's workshops. The rust gathered from the clean-up process was set to be taken away and disposed but a sudden gust of wind blew some of the particles away.
The rust combined with the rain and resulted in cars and a parking lot getting drenched with more than just water.
A source for Nornickel spoken to by The Siberian Times said that the red rain only fell in the area of the parking lot. The red rain was also not poisonous, according to the company.
This is not the first incident of this kind that Nornickel has been involved in. A similar incident was reported back in 2016, which resulted in the Nadezhdinsky plant being hit with fines, according to Sputnik News.
Red rain also made headlines back in 2001 when people in the southern India state of Kerala witnessed the unusual event, according to Today I Found Out.
After examining the rain, the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute determined that the red rain was caused by "lichen-forming alga belonging to the genus Trentepohlia."