UPDATE: We are now informed the city council winched the cow out of the river last night after the Worcester News had highlighted the problem. This information was only provided this morning. The original story is below.

AS Worcester basks in a heatwave one of the city’s key tourist spots is blighted by the rotting carcass of a cow – and no one is willing to take responsibility for removing it.

The animal’s body is stuck in the river Severn near the New Road bridge in clear view of people using the riverside walks.

The carcass is giving off a noxious smell with the current hot weather serving only to make the situation worse.

The stricken animal was spotted upriver at Northwick at the beginning of last week by off-duty fireman Dave Noke as he was walking his dog. By Friday he had contacted Worcester City Council, Defra, the Environment Agency and British Waterways.

However, none of the taxpayer-funded authorities offered to fish out the carcass.

By yesterday, the badly rotting remains had reached the bridge in the city centre.

“It was in the Northwick area last week, so I called up the city council on (Wednesday) May 12,” said Mr Noke, of Riverview Close. “They called back to say they’d referred it to Defra and I heard nothing so I called the other authorities then.

“The Environment Agency said they’d only get involved if it was blocking a watercourse.

“And the most helpful of the lot was British Waterways, who said they would get involved only if it became a navigational issue.

“I had to flag down rowers from the King’s School because they were heading towards the carcass.

“If somebody hit it with a boat it would just spew all of the nasty stuff; it’s so distended with gas and obviously it’s putrified because it’s been there so long.”

A Defra spokesman said: “There are rules on how to properly dispose of animal carcasses to stop the spread of disease.

“But it is up to the council to enforce those rules and make sure they are being followed.”

A city council spokesman said: “We’re looking into it as a priority now but it isn’t straightforward.”

She said “more time” was needed to investigate how Mr Noke’s original call on May 12 had been followed up.

Kate Adams, of Aston Hall Farm at Upton Snodsbury, said all cows had ear tags identifying which UK herd the animal came from.

“It will be interesting to see if the tags are in,” she said.

“If we lost a beast we would let all the neighbours know. You count your herd everyday so somebody will know they’ve lost one.”