Hundreds of fish killed in canal

Hundreds of fish have been killed in County Armagh.

The Environment Agency is investigating the incident at Moneypenny Lock, off the Newry Canal in Portadown. It was discovered on Tuesday afternoon.

The fish which were killed were mostly stone loach, but there were also roach and pike.

The cause is unknown, but one possibility being investigated is that heavy rain may have stirred up noxious mud in the bottom of the canal.

Environment officers are to leave equipment pumping oxygen into the water all night and will return first thing in the morning.

Kerry Anderson, from the Environment Agency, said: "Normally we'd be looking for silage effluent or slurry, but there's absolutely no smell or anything off this.

"One of the things we're looking at is possibly all the rain we've had recently has stirred up the noxious muds in the base of the canal and essentially that could be stripping out the oxygen in the water."