'It was a horror show' says mum of four year old as they watched newly hatched cygnets killed in canal side
A mother with a four-year-old child said they watched a “horror show” unfold before their eyes when a group of newly hatched swans were killed on the Montgomery Canal this week.
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Five baby cygnets died when they got sucked into an overflow grate on the canal in Welshpool in front of horrified onlookers, including a mum and her young daughter.
Lee Williams who lives by the canal, said the incident happened near to a grate not far from the wharf, where a pair of swans had recently nested.
“I've lived here all my life and swans have never nested down there before," she said. "There is a grate down there that goes down into the canal and comes out in a gully the other side.
“Not long ago someone came down and cleaned out the grate but they just dumped all the debris on the verge next to the grate and the swans have come along and nested on it.”
Residents were concerned that it was not an appropriate place for the birds to nest on due to the grate, which sucked in water.
Lee said: “Residents have been popping down to see that they are all right because they should not have nested there.”
She added that around six weeks ago, the cob and pen laid a clutch of eggs, which hatched on Saturday.
On Tuesday evening, she took her four-year-old daughter to see the swans at around 7.30pm. The pair, along with a number of other locals who were on the canal at the time, then witnessed what she described as a “horror show” as the one by one the cygnets were killed.
