'Beluga whale' spotted in River Thames near London

A beluga whale breeches near a buoy on the River Thames near Gravesend east of London, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON (Reuters) - A beluga whale was spotted on Tuesday near barges in the River Thames near London, hundreds of miles from its normal Arctic habitat, naturalists said.

"Can't believe I'm writing this, no joke - BELUGA in the Thames off Coalhouse Fort," ecologist Dave Andrews wrote.

Video footage showed the white mammal surfacing in the Thames near Gravesend, Kent.

A beluga whale breeches on the River Thames near Gravesend east of London, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

"This is the most southerly sighting of a beluga we have ever seen around these shores," Lucy Babey, head of science and conservation at the ORCA charity, was quoted as saying by The Mirror newspaper.

The last sighting in UK waters was in 2015 when they were spotted off northeastern England near the Northumberland coastline, but they left shortly afterwards, she added.

In 2006, a northern bottle-nosed whale died after stranding itself in the Thames.

A beluga whale breeches on the River Thames near Gravesend east of London, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Stephen Addison)

A beluga whale breeches near a buoy on the River Thames near Gravesend east of London, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

People look from the river bank after a beluga whale was spotted in the River Thames near Gravesend east of London, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville