A "Creature in Thames" mystery could replace the search for the Loch Ness monster now that a YouTube video of something swimming in the middle of London's river is going viral online, drawing in more than 1.9 million views since it was posted last week.
The video was posted March 27 and appears to show something large swimming in the Thames, lurking up to the surface briefly before ducking back underwater.
YouTube user Penn Plate wrote that he was on an Emirates Air Line cable car in Greenwich March 26 when he shot the video.
"Something huge was moving under the water and then briefly surfaced," he captioned the video. "Are there whales in the Thames?? Or is it some weird submarine[?]"
The Daily Mail mused that the mystery creature may not be one at all in this era of photoshopped Internet hoaxes.
". . . [I]t is possible the whole stunt was set up as an elaborate April Fool's joke," the U.K. news site wrote. "The Emirates Air Line offers views across the river to its thousands of monthly passengers. And while it's unlikely that Penn really did see the Loch Ness Monster, it wouldn't be the first time an unusual creature has been spotted in the capital's river."
A bottle-nosed whale swam in Thames for several days in January 2006 and eventually died after becoming lost while heading to the North Atlantic, the Daily Mail pointed out.
The Mirror reported that nearly 50 whales and 450 porpoises and dolphins have reportedly been spotted in the river since the 2006 whale appeared. The Zoological Society of London told the U.K. newspaper that Canary Wharf, near where this mystery monster was filmed, would be the likeliest place to see large marine life in the river.
Some on social media had fun with the mystery "creature" in the Thames.
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