ST. MARYS—The main drag looked like a scene from a horror flick last night after a leaky truck spilled 4.5 metric tonnes of chicken blood down Queen Street. The tanker truck, headed from Schneider’s poultry plant in St. Marys to Kitchener, was headed west down Queens Street at about 11:30 p.m. when a valve broke off.

“We got the call first from a citizen who said there was a liquid on the road,” said Const. Glen Childerly of the Perth County Ontario Provincial Police. “When we went there, we discovered it was blood. . . . There was blood everywhere and in spots it was three inches thick.

The blood trail spanned more than five kilometers through the centre of town. The driver of the truck didn’t realize his load had leaked until he got to Highway 7, police said. The Ministry of the Environment was called in along with a hazardous material team to help with the clean up. Crews worked throughout the night to sop up the slippery blood and industrial sweepers were brought to give the street a scrub.

“It’s very smelly there this morning,” Childerly said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

By 9 a.m., the slick blood had already caused one minor collision. The road was closed overnight, but was re-opened to traffic this morning.