Hungary initiates criminal probe into toxic sludge accident

Hungary has initiated a criminal probe into the toxic sludge flood with latest estimates projecting it would take a year to clean up the spill.

Hundreds of people had to be evacuated after a gigantic sludge reservoir at a metals plant in Ajka, a town southwest of Budapest, the capital, burst its bank.

Frantic efforts are on to keep the contaminated slurry from reaching the Danube and spreading to several other nations.

According to a Sky Europe report emergency rescue teams have on their hands an enormous task ahead. The report further states that though the cleaning up of the toxic sludge is likely to take at least 12 months, life in the affected area would never be the same again.

The tide of dirt, a by-product of aluminium production, is caustic and causes death in case it is swallowed. So far,  at least four deaths have been reported with three  missing and 120 injured as the unstoppable torrent flooded homes, swept cars off roads and unleashed and estimated 35 million cubic feet of toxic waste onto several towns in the vicinity.

The cause of the reservoir failure has not yet been determined.