Thousands of Dead fish on the Oder River, probably due to chemical waste dump

Thousands of fish washed up dead on the banks of the Oder River, running through Germany and Poland, indicating warnings of an environmental disaster as residents are urged to maintain distance from the water.

The fish floating by the German banks near the eastern town of Schwedt is believed to have washed upstream from Poland, where first reports of mass fish deaths were made by locals and anglers as early as July 28, The Times of Israel reports.

German officials accuse Polish authorities of not informing them about the deaths and were shocked when the wave of dead fish came floating into view.

In Poland, the government is being heavily criticized for failing to take swift action.

Almost two weeks after the first dead fish appeared floating by Polish villages, On Friday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that everyone had initially thought that it was a local problem.

But he admits that the scale of the disaster is very large, sufficiently large to say that the Oder will need years to recover its natural state.

The Polish Prime Minister further adds that probably enormous quantities of chemical waste were dumped into the river in full knowledge of the risk and consequences, as German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke urged a comprehensive probe into what she called a brewing environmental disaster.