A photo shared by a man in South Africa created panic among social media users. They mistook his photos of dead plants for aliens emerging from the sea. The man, identified as Jan Vorster by New York Post, shared the photo on a South African Facebook group from where they reached other platforms and became viral. The photos were captured at sunrise and sunset to create a spooky effect. Mr Vorster said his main aim was to raise awareness about the damage that has been done to the environment.
"I was surprised by the reaction. I thought that people would have fun with it, but then it was very serious, some of it was extremely serious," he was quoted as saying by the Post.
The photo was snapped in his hometown of Still Bay, Western Cape.
"A lot of people were scared of these alien-looking sea monsters. It was like 'Jaws' - is it safe to go into the water?" Mr Vorster said.
He lined-up the plants with tentacles to give an otherworldly look to his photos.
"I thought I could use this as a metaphor for how people see these plants as aliens, but we are actually the two-legged aliens messing up their world. That was the idea," Mr Vorster, a farmer, explained while talking about the photos.
User reactions ranged from scary to hilarious.
"Just wanted to cancel my vacation. Because of things like this, I don't swim. I'm already scared of a shark," one Facebook user said.
"They look like some alien thing from War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise," said another.
"Spiders... why did it have to be spiders," a third user commented.
