UNUSUAL items including adult toys, false teeth, dead pets and teddy bears have been dumped in sewers across the south coast.

Southern Water has released figures showing that more than 7,000 sewer blockages have been caused by thousands of tons of rubbish wrongly flushed down toilets.

In Hampshire alone engineers discovered 1934.81 tons of rag – the industry term for inappropriate items resulting in blockages – which caused headaches for customers.

Southern Water sewer man Stuart Slark said: ”The only things that should be flushed down the toilet are the three Ps – pee, poo and paper. For everything else, bag it and bin it.

“It costs our customers £1.8million a year to have this removed and keep our sewers flowing.

Over the years we’ve found some strange things dumped in our sewers including false teeth, teddy bears, dead pets and adult toys.”

Toilet paper decomposes naturally and can be flushed away safely but non-biodegradeable items, such as wet wipes, should be put in the bin.

Wet wipes are one of the biggest causes of blockages in sewers and at wastewater treatment works.