Indians drink seawater as it turns sweet

A woman sells empty water bottles to fill seawater as Indians throng the Mahim beach to experience the "sweetended" seawater in Mumbai yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

About 5,000 people gathered at the creek in India's biggest city of Mumbai overnight, and many of them were seen drinking the dirty water with their palms, they said.

"Sweet seawater, this is a miracle. This water is divine," Sheikh Naseer, a Mumbai resident, told a local TV news channel.

He was also shown giving a young boy a bath in the creek's murky waters that receive thousands of tonnes of sewage and industrial waste every day.

Some people carried seawater away in bottles and plastic bags, saying they were going to share it with their families. Children as well as adults bathed in the murky water in which garbage and plastic were seen floating.