Budapest: Residents are beginning to return home to Kolontar, the town in western Hungary flooded with toxic red sludge when a metals plant reservoir burst its banks last week.
Disaster agency spokeswoman Gyorgyi Tottos says some 30 residents are being taken to Kolontar in buses Friday from a sports arena in the nearby town of Ajka where they had been staying since being evacuated.
But environmental group Greenpeace says it`s too early to send residents back into Kolontar because there is not enough data yet on the area`s safety. A protective wall has been built in Kolontar to shield the area from further spills of red sludge, a highly caustic waste product from the making of aluminum. Nine people died in the toxic flood and around 50 are still hospitalized.
Bureau Report
