HUNGARY-ACCIDENT-CHEMICAL

Fishes are seen in a plastic container at the bank of the Marcal River in Gyirmot, a village some 140kms from Budapest on October 7, 2010. The Marcal River's all fish has been wiped out by the sludge, said Tibor Dobson, the spokeman for disaster relief team of the country. Hungary's toxic sludge spill, which has killed four people, reached the Danube river today, threatening to contaminate the waterway's ecosystem, a water authority official told AFP. Water alkalinity, a measure of river contamination, was already above normal in the major waterway, the official said.Samples taken at the confluence of the Raab river and the Danube showed "alkalinity slightly above nornal, around 8.96 percent to 9.07 percent," against a normal tally of eight percent, the source said. A wave of toxic mud was unleashed Monday from the reservoir of an aluminium plant at Ajka, 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Budapest. AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP) (Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)