Cemalettin Küçük, an engineer who co-authored a report on the mine’s safety when its operator sought permission to expand its capacity, said the soil was filled with “stone fragments containing cyanide”.

“We are talking about a mountain weighing millions of tonnes,” Küçük told Turkish media. “We have warned about this many times.”

Mehmet Torun, the former president of the Chamber of Mining Engineers, said that the huge pile of soil sliding towards the Euphrates River consists of materials washed with cyanide and sulphuric acid.

That sounds terrifying as hell … :(