Half of fish life wiped out as slurry spill pollutes river

Half the fish life has been wiped out after a slurry spill polluted a long stretch of a Co Limerick river.

Inland Fishery inspectors and officials from Limerick City and County Council were last night still trying to ascertain the scale of the fish kill on the Lubagh river, which runs by Kilmallock, having identified the farm source of the effluent.

The river, a tributary of the Maigue, is about five miles long, and it is estimated that up to half the river has been affected. Early estimates are that over 1,000 salmon and trout have died, but the figure may be much higher.