Hungary fights to stop sludge polluting Danube

Emergency workers in Hungary have poured 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to keep the toxic sludge spill from flowing into the River Danube.

Officials were concerned about the sludge contaminating the1,775-mile-long river that passes through some of the continent's most pristine vistas from its origin in Germany to its end point emptying into the Black Sea.

Emergency workers and construction crews have swept through the Hungarian towns hardest hit by a flood of toxic sludge, trying to clear roads and homes of acres of deep red mud and caustic water. The spill is currently 45 miles away from the Danube.

A major evacuation took place after the disaster on Monday, when a gigantic sludge reservoir burst its banks at a metals plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles southwest of Budapest, the capital.

Hungarian officials have declared a state of emergency, calling the spill "an ecological disaster" that could threaten the Danube River, one of Europe's great waterways.

One of the continent's greatest treasures of wildlife, it has been the focus of a multi -billion dollar post-communist cleanup.

However, high-risk industries such as Hungary's Ajkai Timfoldgyar alumina plant are still producing waste near some of its tributaries, posing a threat to the waterway.

Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltan Illes called the spill an "ecological catastrophe," and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban acknowledged that authorities have been caught off guard by the disaster.

Orban said the alumina plant and reservoir had been inspected only two weeks earlier and no irregularities had been found.

At least four people have been killed by the sludge, three were still missing and 120 injured, many with burns.