By Desiree Salas (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jul 29, 2014 01:40 AM EDT

Waterways turning blood red are not new - a Biblical account dating ancient times will attest to that. However, this kind of phenomenon is considered by some a thing of the past and something that involves divine intervention.

So, when it happens during modern times, it's logical for people to recall Bible stories and take it as a supernatural sign. Apocalypse, anyone?

Recently, a river in China turned red Thursday, making the locals complain that they "could no longer fish in the river," let alone eat whatever they catch from the crimson waters, Mashable reported.

"The river began to redden at 6 a.m. local time, baffling residents who have spent their entire lives in the town of Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province," the site said. "Officers from the Wenzhou Environmental Protection Bureau took samples to determine the cause of the alarming color shift. It's suspected that people dumped red pollutants into the water somewhere upstream."

"The river's color was normal yesterday," a resident told Shanghaiist. "It's really scary to see the clear river turned into 'blood water' in only a night."

The site also noted that the phenomenon took "notes from a page in the Bible's book of Revelation," even quoting a passage from the Bible, as follows:

"And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood."

However, the bureau's chief, Jianfeng Xiao, has a more matter-of-fact theory for the phenomenon. "We suspect that somebody dumped artificial coloring in the water because he thought the typhoon yesterday would cause heavy rain, and nobody would notice [the color]," Xiao was quoted by ABC News as saying. "It turned out there wasn't heavy rainfall yesterday, so the evidence is left behind."

He also said that a food coloring company and a paper manufacturer can be found along the river, both of which may have a role to play in the reddening of the river. The bureau is currently still conducting investigations for this event.

This is also not the first time that a river in China had turned red. "In 2012, the Yangtze river in Chongqing turned orange red, and in 2011, the Jian river in Henan Province turned a sickening crimson hue," Mashable noted.

"The Jian River in the city of Luoyang, in the north Henan province, turned red after becoming polluted by a powerful dye. The dye was being dumped into the city's storm drain network by two illegal dye workshops," The Daily Mail said.

The Yangtze incident was said to be possibly caused by "suspended sediments, following heavy rains upstream," said Hans Paerl, a marine and environmental scientist, as reported by nature.com.

Perhaps the Wenzhou incident may be caused by either. What do you think?

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