TORONTO -- Police in the U.K. are looking for a mysterious person who has been spotted walking around a Norwich suburb dressed as a 17th-century plague doctor.
Video and pictures of the person, uploaded by Jade Gosbell and verified by social media intelligence and news agency Storyful, show the unidentified person walking through a park in Hellesdon wearing a long black coat, hat, gloves and pointed beak mask.
A spokesperson for Norfolk Police said their officers are looking to trace the individual "in order to provide words of advice about the implications of his actions on the local community."
Hellesdon residents have taken to the local Facebook community page in recent weeks to express concern that the person’s black-clad appearance would frighten their kids.
Physicians who tended to plague victims in 17th-century Europe covered themselves head to toe in robes and wore masks with long bird-like beaks. The look was created by Charles de Lorme, a plague doctor who played a role in treating many European royals during the time.
Before the germ theory of disease, doctors mistakenly believed that the plague spread through poisoned air and thought the beaked masks would purify the air.
The beaks were filled with theriac, a mixture of more than 55 herbs and other compounds including cinnamon, myrrh and honey. The shape of the beak was supposedly designed to give the air enough time to be cleansed by the herbs before it reached the nose.
Britain is currently under lockdown amid the growing COVID-19 pandemic.
