'
Contaminated earth'
On Sunday, farmers banded together to drive around searching for hundreds of shaggy Icelandic horses, who panicked and got lost in a downpour of ash that turned day into night.
"The risk is of FLUORIDE poisoning if they breathe or eat too much," Berglind Hilmarsdottir, a dairy farmer from Nupur, told the AP news agency through a protective white dust mask.
The FLUORIDE in the ash creates acid in the animals' stomachs, corroding the intestines and causing haemorrhages.
Read more: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8629241.stm 
