SHOPPERS had to tiptoe through a sea of foam in Bolton town centre as practical jokers put soap in a fountain.

Bubbles flooded the pavement in Victoria Square, outside the town hall, on Sunday.

This is not the first time this has happened, and the council says that although it is not a big problem, it is a nuisance. A council spokesman said: "It was not a major problem. We had to put some defoaming solution into the fountain, which disperses the bubbles over time.

"This has happened on a number of occasions before, but it is a fairly quick process to sort out once the problem has been logged. We would prefer it if this did not happen as it is a nuisance, but there is not a lot we can do to stop people."

The fountains were built seven years ago as part of the renovation of Victoria Square and were initially dogged by controversy when it took months to get them working properly.

Instead of cascading gently down the pyramid shaped stones either side of the town hall's main entrance, the water was splashing out and soaking the surrounding paving and wind was blowing the water jets away from the fountain.

Eventually modifications were made to solve the problems, but within days pranksters had struck, putting blue dye and foam into the water.