BUDAPEST, Hungary, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A toxic sludge spill has reached a tributary of the Danube River, threatening to contaminate Europe's second-longest waterway, an official from the Hungarian government said Thursday.
Tibor Dobson, a spokesman for the Hungarian Emergency Ministry, told Hungary's MTI news agency that the henna-colored sludge had reached the Mosoni, a southern branch of the Danube. He added that authorities are battling to reduce the sludge's alkaline content to contain the environmental disaster.
The thick red goo gushed from a leaking reservoir near a chemical plant some 100 miles west of Budapest. The plant had held the toxic remnants from the process of converting bauxite to aluminum.
The estimated 24 million-cubic-foot mud wave covered buildings, swept away cars and damaged bridges. It killed four people and injured 120 and destroyed virtually all life on its path through local rivers.
A resident of Kolontar, the small village closest to the spill, told The New York Times that her dog began to "bark like mad" before the mud came rolling toward her house. Before she even saw the sludge, she heard the sound it made. She said it reminded her of a heard of galloping horses.
The Hungarian government has declared a state of emergency in three counties close to the spill.
Emergency workers, police and the military have evacuated the four villages affected and are busy cleaning up the area. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday that the villages, now tinged in red muck, have to be abandoned, as it was impossible to live there again.
UPI
