Ethiopian Review

SMART car owners have been left Smarting over a new craze — for chucking their motors into canals.

Dutch pranksters in Amsterdam have dumped dozens of the tiny two-seater cars into the city’s waterways.

And now police fear the bizarre trend will spread to the UK and the rest of Europe.

Eco-friendly Smart cars are small enough to be picked up by just a few people and dumped into the Dutch capital’s canals, reports De Telegraaf newspaper.

One victim Casper de Jong was woken by police after they found his Smart floating in the waterway outside his apartment.

Mr de Jong said: “Several weeks ago the same thing happened to my companion’s Smart. Both cars were a complete write-off.”

One Smart sales worker said: “We’re not supposed to talk about this because the police don’t want the craze to spread but we’ve had quite a few drowned cars returned to us.”

- By VINCE SOODIN | The Sun