Man puts shark in freshwater river in Austria as a joke

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water - well, it is, actually.

Photo: Man puts shark in freshwater river in Austria as a joke

A mystery triggered this week by the bizarre discovery of the carcass of a meter-long (3-foot-long) shark in a freshwater river in northern Austria ended Saturday when the man who put it there confessed it had been just a joke.

The prankster, an apprentice chef working at a hotel in the province of Upper Austria, told the newspaper Oesterreich that he put the dead shark in the river Voeckla after it began to smell while he was thawing it out for a buffet, the AP says.

Its discovery on the riverbank earlier this week caused a stir, with Austrian experts hard-pressed to explain what a shark was doing in a freshwater stream in the landlocked alpine country.

The chef, whose name was not released, told the newspaper that several regular customers were in on the joke and had placed bets on how long they could keep the controversy going.