An enormous clean-up has taken place on the River Thames, where a huge mound of discarded wet wipes had built up near Hammersmith Bridge.

Over the course of three weeks, teams from the Port of London Authority, Thames Water, and Thames21 worked together to remove around five million wipes from the site — the first clean-up of this scale ever attempted in the UK.

Excavators were used in a “rake and shake” process to break apart the mass, separating wipes from riverbed sediment and uncovering an assortment of unexpected objects, from towels and scarves to even a set of false teeth.

The build-up, which covered an area about the size of two tennis courts and weighed 114 tonnes, had actually shifted the river’s flow and was threatening local wildlife and the wider ecosystem.

Environmental groups involved have warned of the damage caused when wet wipes containing plastic are flushed, and are backing government plans to ban these products altogether.