Officer who raided Chinese restaurant selling street pigeons as 'roasted duck' described 'unbearable' scene

A restaurant serving up pigeon to diners was never going to be a pretty sight, but according to one police officer, it was downright 'unbearable.'

One of the cops who took part in last month's raid of the eatery in Madrid's Usera district described being left sickened by the sight and smell of the scene.

Jin Gu, a restaurant situated in the Spanish capital, was shut down last month after an investigation uncovered that the 'roast duck' on its menu was actually street pigeon.

It's a bold swap, that's for sure - and people have been left wondering how nobody clocked onto the shocking substitution for so long.

It only came to light that Jin Gu were using pigeons instead of duck after police raided the place last month and stumbled across some seriously disgusting sights.

Officials are working under the assumption that the pigeons were snatched off of the street, according to reports.

A spokesperson for authorities in Madrid told The Telegraph: "It is not illegal to breed pigeons in Spain, but there was no paperwork for these birds or almost any of the meat products in the kitchen, so we are pretty sure they were street pigeons."

The gruesome swap was uncovered by police last month (Policia Muncipal de Madrid)

Officers found bowls full of pigeons that had been plucked and roasted, as well as strips of meat hanging from clothes horses.

On top of this, there was unlabelled meat and fish kept in freezers without any thermometers to monitor the temperature of any of the produce.

Jin Gu allegedly flouted this cardinal rule of food storage, despite it being a legal requirement in Spain... and common sense.

And the restaurant wasn't done there either, as the kitchen was also unappetisingly littered with rat traps, as well as several illegal items, such as sea cucumbers.

Not to mention the fact that a shelf was being used to hide a room infested with cockroaches and staff were storing ingredients in the toilet.

About a tonne of kitchen supplies were found to have been stored with no thought given to keeping them at any sort of temperature or regard to health guidelines.

The sight and smell was described as 'unbearable' by one officer who took part in the raid (Policia Muncipal de Madrid)

So, you can understand why one police officer had a few choice words when describing what they witnessed inside of Jin Gu.

"Everything smelled of rotten seafood," the cop told The Times. "It was almost unbearable."

Fortunately, the majority of locals have said they haven't dined there, so it seems as though a lot of people managed to dodge the duck substitute.

Residents said they never fancied giving Jin Gu a whirl as they were put off by a grotesque stench coming from the place - which probably makes a lot more sense now.

"None of us ate there. It smelled bad, and we saw food brought in on a cart and left at the door in broad daylight," they told local media.

Surprisingly, the restaurant has got a fairly impressive 4.2 rating on Google - although some recent reviews aren't as flattering.

The owners are now reportedly being investigated as police look to charge them with public health crimes as well as animal cruelty and consumer violation charges.