In August 1986, something terrible happened near Lake Nyos in Cameroon. First, a rumble was heard within a radius of 25 kilometers, and the next morning more than 1.7 thousand dead inhabitants and more than 3.5 thousand dead cattle were found near the shores of the reservoir.
According to Ephriam Che, a farmer who lived on top of one of the cliffs, the rumbling sound came around 9 p.m., but Che thought it was just a violent thunderstorm and fell asleep.
In the morning, he headed to a waterfall nearby and was surprised to find that the raging stream had calmed down. Also the birds and animals in the vicinity were silent and there were no insects. Then a cry for help came from the village. It belonged to one of the shepherdesses, who said that her whole family and four hundred head of cattle had perished. No flies landed on the dead – simply because the flies were dead too.
The only clue as to why it happened could be the smell of rotten eggs.
