Shocked tourists watched on as the usually beautiful Costa del Sol blue sea turned a horrible shade of brown. Council officials hoisted a yellow flag as a warning to sunbathers as the large brown blotch moved out across the water. The scene occurred around midday yesterday at a stretch of beach in Benalmadena near two hotels – the Globales Los Patos Park Hotel and Hotel Spa Benalmadena Palace.

A Spanish-speaking tourist watching from a beachfront balcony could be overheard saying: “What’s that, are they cleaning something?” before pointing out the bubbles coming from the middle of the stained water to a companion. The man with her joked“The beach of the tourists” as lifeguards moved sunbathers to the tide’s edge on the sand below them.

Council chiefs confirmed overnight yellow warning flags had been hoisted when the sea started turning brown as they blamed the discolouration on a broken water pipe and said there had been no danger to public health.

Benalmadena Town Hall said in a statement: “Public water firm Acosol reported an incident that occurred around midday yesterday in its upstream drinking water supply network in the municipality.

“After detecting the incident, the water leak was immediately stopped before the impact of the incident was studied and repair work began.”

Describing the section of pipe that was affected as “quite old and deteriorated” it added: “The clean, drinkable water has been channelled naturally into the stream and has flowed into the sea.

“It is drinking water and the image it produced is the result of the natural dragging of earth towards the sea, without any type of contamination as it comes from a high water pipe. The town council put up yellow flags as a precaution for bathing.

“Later, after the situation returned to normal, a green flag was put up and work continued on repairing the fault.”

The council statement was issued after footage emerged of torrents of water gushing out of the burst pipe and heading down towards the sea.

One local, expressing concern about the loss of a precious resource in a region which is increasingly affected by drought, said on social media: “How many litres of water are going to be lost before the problem is fixed?”

Another wrote sarcastically: “And the council turns off the beach showers to raise awareness among people.”

A third resident added: “Wastewater does not have or should not have that pressure, but I disagree that it is not partly faecal water that you see in the sea.

“That water carries excrement from the road and especially the waste dog walkers leave on the beach.”