Fish kill linked to sewage leak

More than 500 brown trout were killed

Northern Ireland Water is being blamed for a river pollution incident on a County Antrim river.

A leak from sewage works is thought to have caused a fish kill on the Ballymoney Burn.

The Department of Culture Arts and Leisure (DCAL) had been working to stock the river with brown trout, hundreds of which are now dead.

A NIW spokeswoman said it was "still investigating the incident", which was discovered on Sunday.

Local landowner Sandy Cramsie said: "It's not the first time this has happened and it really is time the sewage works here got their act together."

"As farmers, if we pollute the river we'd get clobbered."

Mr Cramsie said DCAL had done a lot of work on the river.

"Of course their work's now been put back and one also wonders what's happening to all the animals, for instance, the cattle who drink out of the river and the rest of the wildlife such as the otters because there are dead rats floating now in this river," he added.