Toxic sludge spill reaches Danube

A flow of toxic mud reached Hungary's Danube river on Thursday morning and is threatening to contaminate the waterway's ecosystem, the national water authority has confirmed. Hungary has opened a criminal investigation into the spill, which has already killed four people and forced hundreds more to leave their homes. 

Reuters

The poisonous mud, spilled from a reservoir at an aluminium plant in the west of the country on Monday, reached the Danube at around 6.30 am GMT Thursday at Győr in the north-west, via the connecting Raab river.

Alkaline levels in the Danube's waters are higher than normal, a water board official told AFP news agency.

Samples taken at the meeting of the Danube and Raab rivers show alkalinity of around 8.96 to 9.07 per cent, compared to a usual level of eight per cent.

Emergency workers had been pouring tonnes of plaster into contaminated waters in a bid to solidify it and prevent the pollution spreading.

The sludge could threaten the entire ecosystem of the Danube, the second-longest river in Europe. The river passes through 10 European countries, from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea off Romania and Ukraine.

Hungarian authorities have opened a criminal case into possible negligence at the aluminium plant where the spill originated. The site had apparently been inspected two weeks earlier, when no irregularities were found.

Four people are confirmed dead, three are missing and 123 injured by the estimated one million cubic metres of toxic waste.

The clean-up could take up to a year and millions of euros, according to Hungary's Environment Secretary Zoltan Illes.