Tomatina festival

Some 40,000 people have gathered in the town of Bunol, in eastern Spain, to pelt each other with 100,000 kilograms of tomatoes in the annual Tomatina festival.

Participants, including thousands of tourists, turned themselves into a human gazpacho at one of the world's messiest festivals.

Most donned waterproof capes to stave off the onslaught of juice and pulp in a manic free-for-all.

The festival is believed to have begun life as an argument between two carnival participants in 1945.

In keeping with local tradition, the tomato throwing started on the stroke of midday, when five lorries piled high with the fruit moved into the central plaza of the town just outside Valencia.

That was the signal for everyone to hurl tomatoes - which had been squashed up a little in advance - at all and sundry for an hour, turning the streets into a red pulp.

Revellers then made use of showers placed nearby for the occasion or jumped into a nearby river to clean themselves up, while the fire brigade moved in to hose down the streets and sweep up the debris.