Thousands of Twitter users shared photos and videos of the town south of the central Java city of Pekalongan flooded with crimson water, which some social media users say reminds them of blood.
“I’m so scared when this photo gets into the bad hands of scammers,” Twitter user Ayah E Arek-Arek said. “Fearful stories about signs that it’s the end of the world, bloody rain, etc.”
Pekalongan is a city known for the manufacture of batik, a traditional Indonesian method of using wax to resist dyes on water to depict patterns and drawings, usually on material.
It is not uncommon for rivers in Pekalongan to get different colors. Bright green water covered another town north of the city during a flood last month.
“Sometimes there are also purple puddles on the road,” says Twitter user Area Julid, who claims to be from the area.
The head of the Pekalongan disaster relief, Dimas Arga Yudha, confirmed that the photos being distributed were genuine.
“The red flood is due to the batik dye hit by the flood. It will disappear if it mixes with rain after a while,” he said.