Hungary votes to nationalise aluminium spill company

The Hungarian parliament voted overnight on Monday for a law allowing the nationalisation of the MAL company, which owns the aluminium factory responsible for the toxic red sludge leak that started on 4 October.

Reuters

The law was voted in with 336 votes in favour, one against and 13 abstentions.

Under the law, which still has to be signed by President Pal Schmitt, the government will install its own representative at the helm of MAL to deal with the disaster, which has left 150 people injured and hundreds homeless.

The death toll rose to eight on Monday, and one of the heads of the company, Zoltan Bakonyi, was arrested.

The cause of the spill, which started on 4 October, has not yet been determined, but the government has held the directors of MAL responsible.