Jelly sparks toxic waste alert

A pile of jelly left by a road in Germany caused a major security alert after it was mistaken for toxic waste.

A large area near the town of Halle was cordoned off after a "flabby red, orange and green substance" was found by the road, Reuters reported.

Fire officers in protective suits spent two hours inspecting the substance before concluding it was jelly.

"The fire brigade always has to assume a worst-case scenario," a fire brigade spokesman told the news agency.

"We conducted a variety of tests and figured out it was jelly."

The spillage was traced to a wedding party. The newly-wed groom, who was woken up and informed of the alert, promised to clean up the mess.