A Hungarian soldier wearing chemical protection gear walks through a street flooded by toxic mud Tuesday in the town of Devecser, Hungary. Monday’s flooding was caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary and has affected seven towns near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 100 miles southwest of Budapest.

People carry salvaged belongings Tuesday from their homes flooded by toxic mud in Kolontar, Hungary. At least four people have died in flooding caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary, rescue services said Tuesday. Six people were missing and 120 injured in what officials said was an ecological disaster.

Kolontar, Hungary ? A lethal torrent of toxic red sludge from a metal refinery engulfed towns in Hungary, burning villagers through their clothes and threatening an ecological disaster Tuesday as it swept toward the Danube River.

The flood of caustic red mud triggered a state of emergency declaration by Hungarian officials. At least four people were killed, six were missing and 120 injured, many with burns.

Hundreds were evacuated in the aftermath of the disaster Monday, when a gigantic sludge reservoir burst its banks at an alumina plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles southwest of Budapest, the capital. The torrent of sludge inundated homes, swept cars off roads and damaged bridges.

Named for its bright red color, the material is a waste product in aluminum production that contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested.

In Kolontar, the town closest to the plant, Erzsebet Veingartner was in her kitchen when the 12-foot-high wave of red slurry hit, sweeping away everything in its path.

“I looked outside and all I saw was the stream swelling like a huge wave,” the 61-year-old widow said Tuesday as she surveyed her backyard, still under 6 feet of noxious muck.

“I lost all my chickens, my ducks, my Rottweiler, and my potato patch. My late husband’s tools and machinery were in the shed and it’s all gone,” sobbed the woman, who gets by on a $350 monthly pension. “I have a winter’s worth of firewood in the basement and it’s all useless now.”

Emergency workers wearing masks and chemical protection gear rushed to pour 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing on to the Danube some 45 miles away. Nearby, desperate villagers waded through the toxic mud trying to salvage possessions with little more than rubber gloves as protection.

The 1,775-mile-long Danube passes through some of the continent’s most pristine vistas from its origins as a Black Forest spring in Germany to its end point as a majestic stretch of water emptying into the Black Sea.

High-risk industries such as Hungary’s Ajkai Timfoldgyar alumina plant are still producing waste near some of its tributaries, posing a threat to the waterway.

By Tuesday, about 35.3 million cubic feet of sludge had poured from the reservoir, flooding a 16-square-mile area, Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltan Illes told the state news wire MTI. He called the spill an “ecological catastrophe.”

Dozens of villagers were burned when the caustic material seeped through their clothing. Two women, a young man and a 3-year-old child were killed, and health officials said two of the injured were in critical condition.

Because chemical burns can take days to emerge, seemingly superficial injuries can turn deadly as they penetrate deeper tissue, Dr. Peter Jakabos of Gyor Hospital told state TV.