Residents spotted the disturbing sight of blood seeping out onto the road from a Louisiana undertaker’s business on Thursday afternoon.
Gruesome photographs show red liquid trickling onto a back street from a valve outside the Greenoaks Funeral Home in Baton Rouge. City officials said a stoppage in a line had caused the blood, which was mixed with an embalming fluid containing formaldehyde, to leak from a storage tank located behind the building.
The leak lasted for only about 20 minutes, however, and the liquid mix did not find its way into the city’s sewer system, per multiple reports.
“We sent out both our sewer inspector and our environmental specialists to take a look,” Adam Smith, with the City of Baton Rouge Department of Environmental Services, told WBRZ. “We determined that it wasn’t a sewer issue and that it was an issue on private property.”
Smith also noted that it was now a priority to get the funeral home, which is under new management, signed up with the proper permits. It’s unclear whether the business will receive a citation over the incident.
HuffPost has reached out for further information.
The funeral home, which is owned by Dignity Memorial, has since apologized “for any inconvenience this may have caused visitors to our cemetery.”
“As soon as we noticed it, we were able to immediately stop the leak, clean and disinfect the area,” the business added in a statement sent to The Advocate.