Fear of new sludge flood,Hungary town evacuated

No new waste,however,has escaped from the huge container so far,Dobson said. The evacuation of the town of several hundred people began before dawn.

But the concentration of toxic heavy metals where Hungarys

red sludge spill entered the Danube has dropped to the level allowed in drinking water,authorities said,easing fears that Europes second longest river would be significantly polluted.

The red sludge devastated creeks and rivers near the spill site and entered the Danube on Thursday,moving downstream toward Croatia,Serbia and Romania.

Monitors were taking samples every few hours on Friday to measure damage from the spill but the sheer volume of water in the mighty Danube appeared to be blunting the red sludges immediate impact.