Shocked residents of a city in eastern China rushed over to catch live fish with their bare hands after dozens of them began inexplicably jumping from a lake seemingly to escape the water.
The large freshwater fish’ sudden leaping startled bystanders who were walking past lake Dushu, located in Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province.
Phone footage – shared later on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok – shows countless fish repeatedly jumping high above the water’s surface.
Some jumped so high they landed on the nearby safety railing or on the ground and remained flapping there helplessly.
A woman wearing a raincoat apparently noticed the wild occurrence and can be seen bending over by the railing, apparently trying to grab some of the stranded fish to take them home.
Shortly after, a man dressed in a worker’s uniform apparently excitedly runs down to the lake and joins the free-for-all.
The odd fishing event attracted widespread attention on Douyin, receiving over 37,000 likes and approximately 12,000 comments.
It is unclear what caused the fish’s erratic behaviour, but some netizens speculated there may have been an electricity leak from the nearby power grid.
One user titled ‘Happy sheep@’ said in a comment: “Whoever wants one, I’ll go pick one up for them.”
Another user titled ‘Jia Liang’ said: “The water lacks oxygen, they are jumping out to breathe.”
And user ‘driving test tips’ wrote: “Earthquake precursor?”
