Residents return to the scene of toxic sludge flood

Villagers yesterday began returning to the town in western Hungary that was inundated by a flood of toxic red sludge, despite warnings from environmentalists that it was too early and too dangerous yet to go back.

Some 800 Kolontar residents were evacuated last Saturday after authorities said a wall of the factory reservoir could collapse further, releasing a second wave of red sludge after a calamitous break on 4 October created a deadly torrent.

Nine people died in the toxic flood and around 50 remain hospitalised, several in serious condition.

Yesterday, about 30 people were driven to Kolontar in buses from a sports arena in the nearby town of Ajka, where they had been staying.

"Others are returning in their own vehicles from the homes of friends and relatives in the area," disaster agency spokeswoman Gyorgyi Tottos said.

A protective wall of dolomite and earth was built in Kolontar to shield the area from further spills of red sludge, a highly caustic waste produced when making alumina, which is used to make aluminium.

"We just got back into our house and we're going to stay," Peter Veingartner, a 31-year-old body shop mechanic, said from Kolontar. "It seems that most people are coming back to Kolontar… even those who lost their homes say they want to rebuild here."

The plant at the centre of the catastrophe, the Ajkai Timfoldgyar metals plant belonging to MAL Rt, or the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Co, was scheduled to restart yesterday, but authorities postponed the reopening.

Greenpeace said it was too early to send residents back into Kolontar or restart the alumina plant because there was not enough data yet on the area's safety. "The exact causes of last week's red sludge catastrophe still have not been clarified," Greenpeace Hungary said.