Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 7, Episode 5 - Fire Waves of Indonesia - full transcript

[Harry] Worldwide,
50 billion cameras

record our daily lives

in our hands,

in our cars, and in our home

They capture things
that defy explanation.

[woman screams]

It really made me ask,
what the heck's
going on here?

[man 1] Check this out.

[Harry] Experts carry out
forensic analysis

of these unusual events.

Wow! Now that's a cracker.



[man 2] Oh!

This doesn't make any sense.

There has to be
another explanation.

So what could it be?

[Harry] Coming up,
an invisible drug runner.

Did I see that right?
Was that a person

or just a pair
of pants running away?

[Harry] The coast is toast.

[man speaking]

Last time I checked,
water doesn't burn.

[Harry] Is this evidence
of a legendary
World War II weapon?

The coastal weapon
could have been deployed

and actually made that happen.

[Harry] And,
from a man's stomach,



living spaghetti.

[Craig] The fact
that these things
are being removed

from a living person,
it begs a really
disturbing question.

How did they get in there
in the first place?

[Harry] Bizarre phenomenon..

[gasps] Oh, my gosh.

[Harry] ...mysteries
caught on camera.

This is just mind-boggling.

[Harry] What's the truth
behind this

strange evidence?

Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.

June 15, 2021.

A man on vacation
films his family

rushing to the beach

and encounters
some very hot water.

[man speaking]

[Cate] There is actual fire

and it's spreading
across the wave

as it touches the shore.

The last time I checked,
water doesn't burn.

[Harry] The flames create
a barrier between
the sea and shore.

Fire?
Uh, this is not normal, um,

it's not what you'd expect
from a day at the beach.

[Craig] Water's supposed
to put out fires,
not cause them.

Something weird's going on.

[Harry] Geologist, Cate Lars

finds Indonesia
is an island nation

with over 140 volcanoes,

part of the 25,000-mile lon

ring of fire.

The ring of fire is this,

this gigantic ring

of tectonic plates

that encompasses the rim
of the Pacific Ocean.

So, there's lots of volcanoes.

[Harry] Including the most
notorious volcano
in the world.

In 1883, there was one
of the biggest eruptions

to ever happen
in recorded history.

And that was
the eruption of Krakatoa.

[Hannah] Krakatoa
spewed debris

a 50 miles into the air,

triggered tsunamis

and killed
thousands of people.

[Harry] Indonesia's volcanoe
are spread across

more than 17,000 islands.

This is a particularly
volcanically active area.

So, we know
that there's the potential

for this kind of activity
to be there.

[Harry] And off the coast
of the world's
largest archipelago,

there are hidden,
fiery dangers.

In 2010,
there was the discovery of

this underwater volcano
that's over 10,000 feet

in... in total height.

And it doesn't even
touch the surface.

So, is it possible that these

burning waves

is somehow a byproduct

of an underwater
volcanic eruption?

[Harry] But marine biologist
Hannah Rudd

looks at geological surveys

and finds no volcanic activi

recorded on this particular
part of the island.

So, maybe that's not
the answer here.

[Harry] When historian,
Craig Gottlieb

looks at the way the flames
precisely

follow the shoreline,

he is immediately reminded

of one
of the greatest mysteries

of World War II.

Rumor had it that England
had developed

a weapon,
a wall of flame defense.

[Harry] After the fall
of France in 1940,

only a thin stretch of wate

stood between England
and the Nazis.

Along the coastline,
the British military
were on high alert.

And in the summer of 1940,

residents in the remote
coastal village

of Shingle Street, Suffolk

are suddenly evacuated
from their homes.

There are reports
of flashes and screams

coming from the nearby beach

[Amy] Witnesses who served
in Britain's Home Guard

said that it almost looks like
the sun was setting

in the east
because there was this big,

orange glow on the horizon.

It looks like the entire oce
was somehow on fire.

On the shore, they found
a sea of absolute horror,

dead Germans
burned to a crisp.

The soldiers had been
horribly burned

by some kind of secret weapo

that the British had set up
along the shore.

They sat and waited
with the bodies

until British officials
arrived

and then were told
to never speak
of what they saw.

The rumors were
that the Germans attempted
an amphibious landing

and they were met instead
by this weapon.

Once the weapon ignited

and the fire spread,

the assaulting amphibious
invasion troops,

uh, were caught on fire
from head to toe.

[Harry] Dutch resistance
fighters on the other side
of the North Sea

made multiple reports
of German soldiers

filling up hospitals.

They were badly burned,
and rumor was

that it was part of a massive
defensive strategy

around the British Isles.

[Harry] But both the Britis
and German authorities

claim that no incident
took place at Shingle Stree

or anywhere else along
the English Coast that night

Was it some big cover up?

Because neither side
would benefit by saying
what happened.

For the Germans,
it would look like
a giant failure,

and for the British,
they would want to keep
their secret weapon

a secret.

[Harry] Gottlieb discovers
that a secret
beach burning weapon

was indeed being
developed by the British.

The British had established
what they called

the Petroleum
Warfare Department,

and its mission was actually
to figure out

how to use fuel
and oil as a weapon.

[Harry] The top secret
department developed a weapo

designed to burn
invading Nazis

if they tried to come ashore

It was called the fougasse.

[news reporter] If the Germa
had tried to invade
Britain after Dunkirk,

they would have had
a very hot reception

at many likely spots
around the coast.

Fougasse employed oil
and other petroleum products

mixed together

that would be stored
in containers

right at the water's edge.

So, right at the moment

when the enemy needed

to unload landing craft
on a beach,

the beach would suddenly
burst into flames

and attacking German forces

would be consumed
by those flames.

The British actually built

50,000 of these fougasses

and they buried them mostly
along the shores of England.

[Harry] But officially,
the weapon was never used.

Indonesia has more than
60,000 miles

of coastline to defend

and less than 300 naval ship

China has made claims
to some
of Indonesia's territory.

Have the Indonesian militar

created their own version
of the fougasse

to protect their beaches?

Could the Indonesian
government have deployed
this top secret weapon?

Has it been ignited
by accident?

[Harry] Hollywood pyrotechni
expert, Matt Kutcher,

has over 35 years' experienc

with fiery explosions.

He and his team
went to investigate

if the footage shows Indones

secretly preparing
to deploy this lethal,

World War II
wonder weapon today.

So, son, what we're gonna do
is use this body of water

to simulate what we've seen
in that video,

those burning waves.

I want to take and bubble

some propane,
some liquid petroleum,

kerosene and maybe some
butyl acetate.

Why would you be using
those fuels?

That type of fuel is lighter
than the water.

It's gonna stay
right up on top.

And I think once we light it
and create some waves,

it's gonna look like
what we saw in that video.

[Harry] Kutcher runs a pipe
under the water

that will bubble
the flammable mix
to the surface.

He's going to mimic
the waves
on the ocean's surface

to see if the fire behaves
like the one
seen in the video.

-Okay, and light it.
-Here we go.

[Harry] Coming up...

[Matt] All right.
Make some waves.

[Harry] Can Matt Kutcher
cook up a World War II
water weapon?

Look at that.

[Harry] And who wears
the trousers?

This is just bizarre. I mean,
you have half a person

running down the street.

Are we looking
at a semi-invisible man?

[Harry] On Sulawesi Island,

a vacationing family film

as the ocean
bursts into flames.

[man speaking]

Hollywood pyrotechnics
expert, Matt Kutcher,

believes
Indonesian authorities

could be testing
a secret flame weapon

that incinerates
invading armies

as they approach its shores

-Okay, and light it.
-Here we go.

[Matt] Nice.

[Harry] The flames
burn on the water.

But Kutcher needs to replica
ocean conditions

to make the flames match

what's seen
in the original clip.

[Matt] All right,
make some waves.

You see how it's pushing it

That's exactly
what we saw in the video.

Look at that.

See how it curls over.

[Harry] The flames
continue to burn

despite the waves.

Any enemy soldier attemptin
a landing on the shore

would be engulfed by fire.

The fire we created
looks exactly

like what we see
in the other video.

I think
it's completely possible

that a coastal weapon
could have been deployed

and actually made that happen.

[man speaking]

[Harry] But journalist,
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

thinks that the mysterious
flames on the water

are not the work
of the military,

but of pirates.

This particular area
is known for oil piracy

or oil smuggling.

[Harry] Indonesia imports

more than 236,000

barrels of crude oil a day.

Because it has
no international pipelines,

every last drop arrives
by tanker.

And this precious cargo
is vulnerable to buccaneers

One group in particular

has inhabited these islands
for over 400 years,

and their name
has become notorious.

The most feared
are the Bugis...

of the Sulawesi tribe...

who have pirated
European ships

since they first arrived.

And the Bugis people

have been connected to pirac

and pirate attacks

around the Indonesian
coastline.

[Harry] Bugis terrified
European sailors

from the 17th century,

attacking merchant vessels

as they negotiated
Sulawesi's waters.

Portuguese explorer,
Duarte Barbosa,

reported that they were
not just thieves,

but cannibals.

Descendants
of the 17th century Bugis

are still pirates
in these waters.

And it's black gold,
not bullion,

they have firmly
in their sights.

Between 2015 and 2020,

there were
over 250 reported attacks.

[Kenya] In January of 2022,

a tanker was anchored

off of the coast of Sulawesi.

Masked pirates arrived
in speedboats,

armed with machetes.

[Harry] The pirates
seized the crew,

moved the tanker
and siphoned off the oil.

Smaller boats are used
to offload the oil,

and bring it
to, um, its destination.

There's a lot of spillages
into the marine environment

[Harry] The spills
are not only deadly
for marine life,

when they ignite,

it creates fireballs
that can be lethal for human

In 2018,
four fishermen are killed

when a large oil slick

off the coast of Indonesia
catches fire,

with the blaze reaching
more than a mile high.

[Kenya] Stealing oil
is a messy business.

An oil spillage seems
most likely.

Oil can still catch
on fire even in water.

[Harry] Because oil
is lighter than water,

it floats on the surface.

And if something ignites it

the flame will remain
until it burns itself out.

If the oil piracy
in this region continues,

it could turn Indonesia

into a very different
kind of vacation hotspot.

Flaming water is gonna ruin
my day at the beach.

[Harry] Now, Ulloa, Colombia

May, 2021.

A mother films her child
with his pet.

And this is
an ordinary street.

And there's a little
bunny rabbit

which suddenly starts to look
a little terrified.

Oh! Oh, that's weird.

[Chad] It looks like a perso
coming around the corner,

but on looking closer,

it's just the legs
of a person.

The kid is just sort of...
I would be frozen, too.

[Nick] Did I see that right

Was that a... a person,

or just a pair of pants
running away?

[Harry] The disembodied
legs vanish into the night.

Whatever this thing is,
it seems to be running away.

[Michio] How is that possibl

Pants running by themselves?

[Harry] Former NYPD
image analyst, Conor McCour

thinks digital manipulation
is highly unlikely.

When examining the
shadow cast by the pants...

it's consistent with just
the shadow being
cast by pants,

not by the whole body.

Either this is a very good
deceptive video

or this is actually happening.

[Harry] Coming up,

can engineer,
Nick Householder

create his own
invisibility cloak?

I bet you didn't notice
the other thing
that's behind the lens.

[Harry] And terrifying
double vision

over the skies of England.

What exactly
are we looking at?

That it seems like
we have a second sun
in the sky.

[Harry] A woman playing
with her son
and his pet rabbit

films a bizarre pair
of disembodied legs

running down the street
in Colombia.

What we see is

just a pair of legs running
across the scene.

There's no upper body.

It's freaky.
What's going on here?

[Harry] Journalist
Sarah Cruddas

is reminded
of the classic novel,
The Invisible Man

by visionary author,
H.G. Wells.

[Sarah] In the story
of The Invisible Man,

he uses his power
to cause lots of trouble,

and you can't help but wonde

what would you do
if no one could see you?

[Harry] Griffin, the lead
character in the novel

uses physics known
as the refractive index,

to create his invisibility.

[Chad] The refractive index

It's a measure
of how much light slows down

due to its interaction
with the atoms
making up a material.

[Harry] Engineer
Nick Householder

wonders if an updated versio
of that science

could be being
deployed here in the footage

The Invisible Man
develops a process

that allows him to change
his body's refractive index

to be the same as air.

[Harry] When light passes
through two materials

with different indexes,

it bends enough for us
to notice the distortion.

[Nick] If two objects have
the same refractive index,

that means that the light
doesn't bend
when it passes through,

meaning, to your eyes,
it appears invisible.

[Harry] But physicist
Chad Orzel

finds H.G. Wells'
Victorian era theory

has a major flaw.

[Chad] As it turns out,
changing your index
of refraction

is one of the worst ways
to become invisible,

because it would require
a really wholesale change

in the way that your body
is put together.

Your retinas
would stop working.

You'd effectively be blind,

because instead of the light
bouncing around
and hitting your retinas,

it would just pass straight
through you.

Nobody would be
able to see you,

but you wouldn't be able
to see anybody else either.

[Harry] Data scientist,
Liberty Vittert,

believes this bizarre sight

could be evidence
Colombia's drug smugglers

are using
technological solutions

to keep their activities
hidden.

Maybe, stealth tech

explains what's happening
in this video.

I mean, who needs
to be invisible
more than a smuggler?

[Harry] Colombia is the
biggest producer

of cocaine in the world,

with more than 350,000 acres

equivalent to more than
77,000 baseball fields

being used for its productio

The illegal narcotics trade
here

is worth over $10 billion
a year,

and the cartels are constant
using high tech innovations

to stay one step ahead
of the law.

An example of this is
something called

a very slender vessel,

which is a high-speed boat

that can be upwards
of 50 feet long,

but 10 feet or less wide.

[Harry] These long,
skinny boats

are capable of piercing
waves at high speed,

low to the water's surface,

making them nearly impossibl
to detect by radar.

If we know they're already
using technology like this,

it's not a stretch to think

that they may expand
into active camouflage
of some kind,

like this invisibility cloak.

[Harry] Engineer
Nick Householder
has built an experiment

to test if a real life
invisibility cloak

can match the dramatic effect
seen in the footage.

Quantum stealth
is a technology

that would allow us
to bend light rays

without physically interacting
with them.

And it's still theoretical.

There does exist
a technology today

that can bend light
in a similar way.

This is a lenticular lens.

There's a bunch of
vertical corrugations in here

that are in themselves lenses.

Each one of those bends light
in an interesting way.

So, what's behind
the lenticular lens?

Nothing?

Wrong. There's a can
back there.

The lenticular lens
is amazing.

It's capable
of bending the light

from the left and right,

and making it appear
straight to your eyes.

Effectively, it took the light
from this side

and the light from this side
and bent them straight
at the camera.

You're just seeing
to either side

of the can simultaneously.

The application
for this kind of lens

is typically like those little
holographic cards

that look like one object
from one side

and one object
from another side.

Now, the special sauce is,

when it moves away
from the object,

it creates a blind spot
directly behind it

where the light
from the left and right
are bent to go straight,

and there's an invisibility
patch directly behind it.

[Harry] But Householder
wants to know

if it can shield
an entire head and torso.

[Nick] This is a very large,
lenticular lens.

It gives you the ability
to make any part of your body
disappear,

whether it's your torso
or your legs.

If the man in the video

had a lenticular lens,
the size of a shield,

he might be able
to make it look like,

he had no upper half.

[Harry] The video shows
no evidence

of the blurring
and distortion visible
in Householder's experiment

But an advanced version
of this technology,

paid for with plentiful
supplies of drug money,

could possibly create
something

that gives a much heightene
level of invisibility.

[Chad] So, if somebody
in Colombia

had wrapped it
around themselves,

maybe they could make
this kind of an effect.

If we know they're already
using military

and stealth technology,

it's not a stretch
of the imagination to believe

that if this technology
exists,

they're seeking it out
and using it.

Who wouldn't want
an invisibility cloak?

[Harry] Now, Oxfordshire,

a county in central England

January 23rd, 2021.

A man out walking

notices something
strange in the sky

and starts to film.

The shot looks strange.

The sky looks very dark.

[Harry] Just as the sun
threatens to burst
through the clouds.

This is two suns.

This is a bizarre sight.

That's impossible, right?

There's two suns. Okay.

Yeah, that happens
every Tuesday.

No problem.

This is like the sky
has gone mad.

[Harry] It's clear
this is no duplicate image

of our sun on the lens

as a bizarre beam
of light erupts

from the dazzling intruder.

The sun on the right is ablaze

with this kind of purple laser
going through it.

This is really spooky.

[Amy] What exactly
are we looking at?

That it seems like
we have a second sun
in the sky.

[Harry] Coming up,
a nearby laboratory

that's meddling
with star power.

[Chad] Humans can copy
the reactions

that power the sun
here on earth.

Is this some
sort of experiment

in nuclear fusion energy?

[Harry] And horror hospital

How did a patient end up
with these worms
in his stomach?

[Roland] I'm really glad

that I didn't have lunch
before watching this clip,

especially not spaghetti.

[Harry] In the county of
Oxfordshire, England,

60 miles northwest of London

a man films as our sun
is joined by a strange twin

burning brightly by its side

[Orelon] When you see
something like this
that is really unusual

and it's looking at you,

it's very easy to interpret
that as a message
from the beyond.

[Harry] When astrophysicist
Michio Kaku, looks at
this bizarre second sun,

he is reminded of a dangerou
laboratory experiment that
is happening nearby.

Scientists are trying to
create a piece of
the sun in a reactor.

This is called fusion power.

[Harry] The Culham Center li
just a few miles

from where this strange
light was filmed.

Scientists here are
experimenting with
nuclear fusion,

which they claim will be
the holy grail of
power production.

It involves creating
a Frankensun,
a man-made star,

by compressing and heating
two different hydrogen gase

to temperatures of around
180 million degrees
Fahrenheit.

A dazzling but
dangerous solution.

It's an engineering problem,
but what a problem.

Because when you squeeze gas,

irregularities build up.

It's a real headache

trying to keep gas stable.

This is something that
can be done.

Humans can copy
the reactions that
power the sun

here on earth.

Is this some sort of
experiment in nuclear
fusion energy

that's produced
this second sun up in the sky?

The center of the sun
is incredibly dense
and incredibly hot.

So the challenge is, well,
what can contain this?

The answer is you have
to build a magnetic
containment sphere.

[Harry] Superconducting
magnets

are precisely positioned
around a donut-shaped
containment device

known as a tokamak.

By super heating
and compressing
hydrogen gases,

atoms are forced together
to form helium atoms,

neutrons and vast
amounts of energy.

This reaction, which mimics
the process occurring
inside our sun,

can create temperatures
even hotter than
our solar neighbor.

And the massive release of
energy can be
used to create power.

In recent years,
they've been making
tremendous strides.

An artificial sun,
is in a sense,
a real possibility.

[Harry] Is it just
a coincidence that
this apparent second sun

is appearing so close
to the laboratory?

Is it physically possible

for a second sun
to spontaneously appear
in the sky?

[Harry] But journalist
Amy Shira Teitel,

finds evidence in local
history books

of weird orbs appearing
in the skies over this area

multiple times
throughout history.

One of the most notable
events was in 1461,

right in the middle
of the War of the Roses.

They were on the battlefield
and saw three suns in the sky,

and it became such
a momentous event in history.

Shakespeare even
wrote about this.

He describes these three suns
in his historic play,
Henry VI,

as being of equal brightness

dominating the sky.

This would have been
seen as some kind
of Godly sight

that would have left
a hugely lasting impression
on anybody who saw it.

[Harry] Over 400 years later
in 1888,

an eerily similar phenomeno
in the skies over Oxfordshir

causes another
bizarre chain of events.

It drives thousands of sheep

absolutely crazy
and wild eyed.

They stampede through
the countryside,
causing havoc.

[Harry] Reports say this wei
glow turns these animals

from docile creatures
into ravenous monsters,

rampaging over an area
of 200 square miles.

Meteorologist, Orelon Sidne

suspects there is
an ancient phenomenon
behind this second sun

that might also explain

the reports of weird,
dazzling balls of light

seen here throughout
the centuries.

[Orelon] What I thought thi
was, when I saw it,

is an optical effect
called a sundog.

Sundogs are formed when
there is a thin layer

of ice crystals
very, very high
in the atmosphere,

and those refract
and reflect the sunlight

depending upon the orientation

of those ice crystals.

When the orientation
is just right,

you will see sun either side

of the actual sun.

[Harry] This second sun
vanished after a few moments

perhaps as the ice crystals
in the atmosphere warmed up

And if it was a sundog,

the chances are the people
living in the rolling
hills of Oxfordshire

could see more twin
suns appearing for
many years to come.

I think it's part of the
human condition to...

realize that what we see
that mystifies us,

our ancestors saw

thousands of years ago
looking up at that same sky.

And they were just
as amazed as we are.

[Harry] Now, Thanh Hoa,
Vietnam.

December 21st, 2020,

a bowl full of horror.

Oh, that is just nasty.

That's... There's no need.
There's no need for me
to see that.

I'm really glad that
I didn't have lunch
before watching this clip,

especially not spaghetti.

Wow. So we have a bowl
of what looks like worms.

[Harry] This bowl is
in a hospital,

and these worms just came
out of a living patient.

Oh, man. I can't even imagine

taking that out of someone.

[Harry] Over the course
of an hour,

surgeons remove more than
100 live worms from
the man's stomach.

You can only imagine
what it must feel like to have
a belly full

of worms

that are moving around
like that and like

growing and mating
and reproducing
inside your gut.

Oh my God.

The fact that these things
are being removed from
a person's abdomen,

a living person, it begs
a really disturbing question.

How did they get in there
in the first place?

[Harry] Coming up...

Is this a diet fad
gone horribly wrong?

Some people actually decided
that they would
ingest tapeworms

in order to lose weight.

[Harry] And locals see red,

leading them to ask,

what's being dumped
in our river?

[woman speaking
foreign language]

The cleanup crews
were continuously vomiting

while trying to deal
with this problem.

[Harry] In Thanh Hoa, Vietna

surgeons pull hundreds
of parasitic worms from
a living patient.

[Leslie] That's crazy.

I'd expect to see, like,
one or two,

but that's a lot of worms

inside of a human.

[Harry] Historian,
Craig Gottlieb, finds
that some people

deliberately eat living
worms as part of
the ultimate crash diet.

Some people actually
decided that they would
ingest tapeworms

in order to lose weight.

[Harry] The worms remain ali
inside the stomach,

just like the creatures
in the video.

[Kevin] The idea is,

you can eat anything
and everything that you want.

And in your stomach,

those tapeworms will
ingest all of
the extra calories

that you are not using.

So instead of going
to your hips and thighs,

you get a gaggle of
worms inside your stomach.

[Harry] In the West,
this unproven obesity cure

was once used by
the rich and famous.

There was an opera singer,
for example, in the 1900s,
Maria Callas.

They said she had
a tapeworm to lose weight.

In 2014,

a British journalist thought
he'd put the tapeworm
to the test,

so he deliberately ingested
the tapeworms to see
if he could lose weight.

He had the tapeworms
for three weeks.

And you know what?
In that three week period,

he actually gained weight.

[Harry] Tapeworms are not
large enough to absorb

all the calories
humans take in,

and in some cases

the parasites just make
people more hungry
so they eat more.

Negative health implication
from eating a tapeworm

will always trump
any alleged benefits.

The larvae can migrate
to other parts of the body.

Do you want a tapeworm
in your heart as well?

Or how about your brain,

or even your eyes?

[Harry] As developing world
countries like Vietnam

have become richer
over the last 20 years,

their populations have
also become heavier.

Medical journal, The Lancet

found 62% of all
the obese people on earth

live in the developing world

At 1300 pounds,
Juan Pedro Franco of Mexico

became the heaviest person
on earth,

weighing more than
a grand piano.

Tapeworm obesity remedies
have become popular,

but they can have
deadly results.

In 2019, a man in India
started having seizures.

When he went to the hospital,
they did a body scan,

and they were shocked
to find out

that he had cysts
all over his brain.

And you know what?
Those cysts turned out to be
tapeworm larva.

[Harry] Tapeworms multiply
at an alarming rate.

In the human intestine,

within two months,
their eggs morph into adults

able to grow up to
80 feet long.

And once they are in,
they can be long-term tenant

Tapeworms can live
for up to 30 years.

That's longer than
most marriages.

[Harry] But biologist,
Leslie Samuel,

thinks the video does not sh
the grim results of
a dieting craze.

Whatever the worms
are in this guy's stomach,
though, they're not tapeworms.

Tapeworms are generally
longer and thinner than
whatever these monsters are.

What's more,
tapeworms don't reproduce
this much.

You wouldn't find that many.
Not at this scale.

[Harry] Entomologist,
Kevin Kasky,

believes these worms could b
some kind of helminth

among the most dangerous
parasites on earth.

[Kevin] Once they get
into your system,

helminths can cause
incredible damage.

They will steal the nutrients
from the food
that you're ingesting,

all the while,
spreading disease
throughout your body.

[Harry] There are believed
to be around 100,000

different species
of parasitic worms

that make up
the deadly helminth group,

entering the body through
contaminated food,
water and even insect bites

These lethal worms are
the leading cause of diseas
in the developing world.

To make matters worse,
helminths also suppress
T cell production

that massively compromises
the body's immune system.

This makes them
almost impossible
to get rid of

without medical aid.

Once they get a hold,
they're incredibly tough
to shake.

[Harry] It's unknown
how long it took
to remove all the worms

from this man's
digestive system.

But the hospital had them
all destroyed,

so they wouldn't reenter
another unfortunate human.

He must have felt
so much better

getting those out.

Can you imagine...

having that one day

and then getting that removed?
That must be like
the best day of your life.

[Harry] Now, Enshi, China.

July 2021.

A woman films
as one of the area's
most beautiful rivers

suddenly runs blood red.

I've never seen anything
like this before.
Never.

Wow! That waterfall
does not look right.

It looks like something
out of a biblical plague.

[Harry] Locals are terrified
This is the water
they drink and wash with.

[woman speaking
in foreign language]

Imagine your local river
suddenly turning
this bright red.

You'd probably
be alarmed too.

[Harry] Coming up.

Is this an attempt
to hide evidence of a plague

Three hundred tons
of diseased pig carcasses

were discarded
and just dumped aside.

[Harry] Enshi, China.
A woman films in horror

as her local river
turns blood red.

[woman speaking
in foreign language]

I know if I was walking
through an area

and I saw
a waterfall like this

that wasn't any sort of
natural water color,

I would be very,
very concerned.

[Harry] Engineer,
Brian Wolshon,

believes this video
could be evidence

Christmas has come early
to this river valley,

but not in a good way.

China produces 60%
of the world's
Christmas products.

That's everything from
reindeer antlers and bells
to tinsel and baubles.

So, it stands to reason
that they might use
a lot of the color red.

[Harry] And the conditions
Chinese Christmas industry
workers have to endorse

anything but festive.

This is no Santa's workshop.

The workers here
are consistently exposed
to toxic chemicals

that cause health problems.

[Brian] A study of Christma
products showed

that 60% of these products

had chemicals
linked to cancer.

[Harry] Red dye Sudan I,

linked to lethal carcinogen
is banned in 1996
by the Chinese.

But a government study in 20

found the chemical
was still being used
in the country,

not just in products,

but in food to color
chili sauce
and takeout fried chicken.

It was quite possible that

there was some company
that was needing to make
a lot of red products

and the dye got into
the water supply.

[Harry] But former FBI agent
Rhonda Glover, believes
this crimson concoction

might be exactly
what it looks like.

This might not be dye.

It may be blood.

[woman speaking
in foreign language]

[Harry] China consumes
more meat than any other
country on Earth.

In 2017,

China ate around
74 million tons of
pork, beef, and poultry.

Linda Rodriguez McRobbie,
thinks this local appetite
for animals

may explain
the blood red deluge

cascading through
this rural valley.

Enshi is actually
a center for livestock
and agricultural production.

Is this somehow
linked to that industry?

There certainly have been
sort of nightmare scenarios
involving livestock.

[Harry] Pig factory farms ha
become hotspots for viruses

and when swine flu
hit the country in 2013,

villagers in the
rural outskirts
of Huzhou city

started to notice
a bizarre smell.

Locals were complaining
about this horrible stench.

And it turns out,

illegal dumping of things li
agricultural waste

has become
a big problem
in parts of China.

Three hundred tons
of diseased pig carcasses

were discarded
and just dumped aside.

[Harry] 6000 rotting
pig carcasses

floated down a river
that supplies tap water.

The groundwater
was contaminated.

The cleanup crews were
continuously vomiting

while trying to
deal with this problem.

Is it possible that
there's been another outbreak

that required the slaughter
of thousands of animals?

[Harry] But explorer,
George Kourounis, suspects

the mysterious red river

may be down to
a toxic mixture of
natural biological organism

and deadly
man-made substances.

China is actually
no stranger to
waters turning red.

The South China Sea
has been known to

experience these toxic,
bright red algal blooms
called a red tide.

They are exacerbated by
runoff from animal husbandry
like fertilizer.

As that fertilizer goes
into the warm water,

it causes this algae to grow
and reproduce at
a tremendous rate,

turning the water
a blood red color.

[Harry] In 2007,
vast areas of
the South China Sea,

are turned a grisly red colo

And it isn't just this
bright red, kind of
terrifying color,

it's also potentially toxic
to people and plants,
and animals around it.

[Harry] These blooms suck
the oxygen out of the water
killing marine life

and pump out poisonous,
brevetoxins

that can cause diarrhea,
vomiting, nausea,

and respiratory problems
in humans.

This isn't just happening
in China.

It's happening on coasts
around the world.

There's been outbreaks
in America.

There have been outbreaks
pretty much everywhere.

[Harry] Studies suggest tha
harmful algal blooms

are also increasing
in frequency.

But these blooms
tend to occur in saltwater.

But Enshi
isn't a coastal town,

and this isn't
a coastal waterway system
that we're looking at.

[Harry] Scientists scramble
to get samples,

but the river changed back
to its natural color
before they arrived.

We don't have any answers
as to why this river turned
this color.

And that's worrying.

Whether it was
a natural event or something
involving industry,

the fact that we're unsure
makes it that much scarier.