ENVIRONMENTAL experts are hopeful there will be no long-term impact on wildlife after a pollutant spillage in the River Skerne killed thousands of fish.

They have also said the incident is not being linked to a major fire which ripped through a Darlington scrapyard just hours before.

An investigation was launched by the Environment Agency on Friday after it received reports of thousands of dead fish in the river.

Samples were taken from the water and sent away for analysis, which has shown the deaths were caused by a detergent.

Agency spokeswoman Louise Turner said: "The detergent is one that is widely used, which means we are still looking into where it came from.

"However, when our officers were taking samples from the water, they did see some fish swimming in the river amongst the dead ones, which shows the pollution was dispersing and the river is being repopulated."

Ms Turner said the Environment Agency was aware of the blaze at Ward Brothers scrapyard, in the Albert Hill area of Darlington, which a team of 20 firefighters was tackling just hours before the dead fish were found.

She said: "When fire crews tackle large industrial fires like this, it is possible the water from the hoses will mix with pollutants and this will be washed into nearby rivers.

"However, we checked the River Skerne after being notified about the fire and there was nothing wrong at this stage. We are not linking the two incidents and the fire did not lead to any environmental damage.

"The fire service is still determining the cause of the blaze and we will be looking at whether or not it was caused by something the company was doing or if it was due to something out of its control."