Tons of dead fish wash up on banks of Lebanon's highly polluted Lake Qaraoun

Qaraoun, Lebanon — Tons of dead fish have washed up on the shore of a highly polluted lake in eastern Lebanon in the past few days, an official said Thursday. It was not immediately clear what caused the fish kill in Lake Qaraoun on the Litani river, which several local fisherman said was unprecedented in scale.

A preliminary report said a virus had killed only carp in the lake, but a veteran water expert said their deaths could also have been caused by pollution. Hundreds of fish of all sizes lay dead on the banks of the more than three-mile long lake on Thursday, and the stench of their rotting flesh clung to the air.