Budapest - The number of suspects interviewed by Hungarian police in connection with a recent fatal chemical spill rose to three on Monday as police announced that a third aluminium company employee had been detained for questioning.
Nine people were killed and over 120 needed hospital treatment after up to a million cubic metres of caustic red sludge spilled from the waste reservoir of an alumina plant in Ajka, western Hungary, on October 4.
The female suspect, named as Jozsefne F, was responsible for environmental protection and laboratory work for Hungarian Aluminium （MAL） Ltd, the owner of the plant, according to a statement on the nation police website.
Meanwhile, representatives of MAL Ltd met with those of residents of nearby villages that were devastated by the flood of industrial effluent that covered about 40 square kilometres of countryside.
'Discussions of an out-of-court settlement will begin on Wednesday between the lawyers of victims of the red sludge catastrophe and those of MAL Ltd,' a lawyer for the firm told the state news agency MTI.
One of MAL's owners had already indicated that the firm was considering offering compensation of 1.5 billion forints （7.5 million dollars） to those affected by the spill.
According to the firm's 'concrete conception,' money would be paid over five years, president of MAL Ltd Lajos Tolnay was quoted as saying in an interview posted Friday by boon.hu, an online news web site.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stated that anyone found to have been negligent or otherwise responsible for the disaster will face the 'toughest possible consequences.'
The managing director of MAL Ltd, Zoltan Bakonyi, was arrested and questioned last week. He was then released two days later when a court rejected a petition by police for his preliminary detention, citing insufficient evidence at such an early stage of the investigation.
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