Sanitation workers in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province were surprised to catch five large catfish while draining a city sewer on Sunday.

The employees of a local urban landscaping engineering and construction company pulled out the fish at the west gate of Yujingyuan residential community around 11:30 am Sunday.

The catfish weighed between 2 and 4 kilograms, with the largest measuring around 80 centimeters long.

"This was a first for me. The fish were really strong and we worked hard to pull them up," said the crew leader surnamed Yu.

Yu said the fish may have come from the nearby Puzhou River where the sewers drain.

The dark and murky sewers are an ideal environment for catfish seeking deep mud to hibernate, said Yu.

A worker on the crew surnamed Wu claimed to have similarly caught carp measuring 50 centimeters long from another sewer last year.

Yu said the catfish are probably not fit for consumption and she plans to release them in the river.

Wenzhou Economic Daily