Drummond Puddle
Thousands of people have been watching a live stream of a puddle Periscope

Tens of thousands of viewers are watching a video of a puddle in Newcastle. On the same day North Korea claimed it tested its first hydrogen bomb, three Labour Party MPs resigned their positions in the shadow cabinet and England batted out a draw against South Africa in the cricket, it is the puddle that is gaining all the attention on social media.

Considered "better than watching Newcastle United" and "the end of civilisation as we know it" by Twitter users, the puddle can claim to be the first internet sensation of 2016, following in the footsteps of hits from 2015 including road-rage maniac Ronnie Pickering, the black or blue (or was it white or gold?) dress and Drake's dancing.

The phenomenon was started by office workers at marketing agency Drummond Central, who spent hours peering out of their window as pedestrians tried to tackle the puddle on a footpath in Newcastle.

There have been more than 400,000 views of the live stream of the puddle as people gather around the Toon's newest tourist attraction. The hashtag #DrummondPuddleWatch soon became one of the most searched terms on Twitter.

Gareth Wood, creative head at Drummond Central, said: "It's just car crash TV. You don't know why you're watching it but you can't pull yourself away."