Every year around this time, tens of thousands of people gather in the eastern Spanish town of Bunol to pelt each other with tomatoes. It's the annual "Tomatina" fruit battle, and it's something you've got to see to believe.

Participants from around the world jumped and fell around in the sea of red mush as they pelted each other with tomatoes, which are hurled at the crowds from loaded trucks.

A tourist said, "We saw this festival once in a Hindu film and had to prove that it was real."

At one point the civil guard had to step in to control some over-zealous participants, and every year the festival ends in a huge clean-up operation.

A cleaner said, "We haven't stopped to remove our shirts or throw the tomatoes in the drains."

The origin of the tomato fight is disputed - everyone in Bunol seems to have a favorite story - but most agree it started around 1940, in the early years of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship.