Hungarian aluminum plant director detained over red sludge

One of the heads of the Hungarian aluminium plant whose reservoir burst and flooded villages with toxic red sludge has been detained by police for questionning. Authorities are racing to put up a dam around the reservoir to prevent a new wave of sludge from flooding already devastated villages.

Reuters

Although hundreds of volunteers have joined engineers rushing to erect the new dam, they may have little time before the reservoir begins to collapse.

02:41

Gulliver Cragg, Correspondent

Philip Turle

"No one's faced a situation like this before," correspondent Gulliver Cragg told RFI after a visit to Kolontar, the town worst affected by the disaster. "It's inevitable it will collapse, but it could be today or it could be next year."

Disaster relief services said the dam would be completed Monday evening.

A new body was recovered today, bringing the death toll since the original spill last week to eight people.

Another 150 were injured, and the entire population of Kolontar has been evacuated.

Police detained for questioning the managing director of MAL Hungarian Aluminium Products and Trade Company, which owns the reservoir.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban earlier told a parliamentary session that police initiated proceedings to place Zoltan Bakonyi in preventive custody.

Bakonyi is also the son of one of the owners of MAL.

"MAL is owned by three of Hungary's richest men, and there's a lot of anger against them," explained Cragg.

There is still no estimate of the total cost of the damage caused by the spill, but a top government official warned the company's owners could face fines of up to 73 million euros.

"The government is keen to blame the whole thing on MAL and not accept any responsibility itself, and local people agree that MAL is responsible," said Cragg.

Environment State Secretary Zoltan Illes said the government was still unsure whether or not the company overloaded the reservoir.

"If that is the case, it's illegal storage of waste, and that constitutes a crime," Cragg said.