Mystery as submerged car spotted in canal

Bank Holiday Monday walkers were stunned to see a car submerged in a canal. The Manchester Evening News understands no one was hurt and an onlooker who witnessed the incident in Marple, Stockport, said they didn’t believe emergency services attended the scene.

The car was pictured submerged in a stretch of the Peak Forest Canal at Marple Locks. The site is just off St Martin’s Road, off Station Road, near to the lock-keeper’s cottage between locks nine and 10.

The stretch of canal involved was subsequently drained – with another image showing the silver hatchback stuck in the mud on the canal bed. One onlooker who was out for a walk told what happened.

They said water must have shorted the car’s electrics, as its windscreen wipers and hazard lights were on in the water. The witness said: “We were out for a family walk and it just happened – we were walking along and just saw the car in the canal.

“It had only just happened apparently when we passed by. We do not know whether anyone was in the water. There were some lock-keepers about doing work on the locks nearby and one of them came down and drained the canal.

“That stretch of the canal was drained and you could see the car in the mud. We are not sure how it came to be in the canal but nobody was hurt or injured.”

The onlooker said he didn’t believe the emergency services attended the scene at around noon on Monday. “It was a bit of a pantomime on a Bank Holiday Monday – it was all a bit odd,” they added.

“I did not see any of the emergency services but there was no one hurt. The car is a Toyota of some description I believe, but it is hard to tell. The water must have shorted all the electrics because the windscreen wipers were going and its hazard lights were flashing.

“It was all a bit bizarre really. It was causing quite a scene as you can imagine and there were people taking photographs.”

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