Chef confesses to shark river prank

A mystery triggered this week by the bizarre discovery of the carcass of a shark in a freshwater river in northern Austria ended today when the man who put it there confessed it had been 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 3ft dead shark in the River Voeckla after it began to smell while he was thawing it out for a buffet.

Its discovery on the river bank 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, who was not named, 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.