A boat of drunk friends managed to sink a 30ft canal boat and crash a second during a rowdy stag do.
The chaotic wedding crew ended up forcing the waterway to close and flooded a nearby road after the party kicked off in Worcestershire.
They set off from the marina on Friday afternoon but their vessel became submerged in the Droitwich Canal just hours later.
"Apparently these idiots hit several boats before this happened," a resident commented on social media.
"The police were informed but they declined to get involved. If they had, perhaps this could have been avoided. Thankfully no one was killed."
Other boat users were blocked from using the route for most of Saturday while rescuers tried to recover the narrow boat.
Motorists also had to navigate flooded nearby roads after water levels rose due to the havoc.
Police, firefighters and rescue teams were called to both incidents after horrified onlookers dialled 999.
Amanda Huxtable, who made the call, said: "These guys were incapable of being in charge of a 65ft narrowboat."
The groom's entourage had hired three barges from ABC Boat Hire on May 20 for a weekend of pre wedding debauchery, reports the Sun.
Shortly after setting off, they managed to crash one of the barges into a fellow passing sailor but carried on along the canal.
They then caused more chaos as they passed through a lock and got stuck.
But the stag party allegedly abandoned their second boat and piled onto the third to continue their celebrations.
An investigation has been launched into the incident which sparked outrage among residents, with some calling for tighter regulations.
"Same stag party split between three boats, absolutely tanked up. One other boat abandoned after collision and third missing," one person said.
"They should be taken to court by the Hire Co, and said Hire Co should get their own house in order and not hire three boats to the same stag party.
"Sometimes common sense just has to prevail over income."
Another person commented: "No one would hire a limo or a light aircraft to someone organising a stag event.
"Why is it legal to be in charge of a boat when drunk? Apart from the risk of damage to infrastructure and other vessels, there is a very real risk of injury or drowning."
A third added: "We see hire boats come past our house very often with the person steering enjoying a tipple.
"We've seen them steer into the bank with children at the tiller."
The River Canal Rescue team is retrieving the boat while Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT) is planning to launch a full investigation.
A CRT spokesperson said: "I think it was a stag party and there were three boats.
"One was the one that got into trouble and that was because they didn’t operate the locks and the paddles properly, so ultimately their boat got stuck.
“The first time the Trust was notified of the situation was at 9.30pm last night but that was only in relation to some flooding on a nearby road."
Investigators discovered by 10.15pm that the chaos was due to misuse of the locks and were told at 6.30am that the boat had sunk.
The spokesperson added: “We are relieved that there have been no injuries or anything worse.
“Two of our staff have stayed on-site to make sure it is secure and they are liaising with the fire service and River Canal Rescue.”
