Residents of Devecser in western Hungary, one of the towns worst hit by a recent toxic industrial waste spill, on Wednesday said they would go ahead with a planned demonstration despite a police order to call it off, dpa reported.
"We have nothing to lose, the red mud took everything we own," Geza Csenki, organiser of the protest due to take place Friday, told the state news agency MTI.
Devecser was inundated when up to a million cubic metres of caustic slurry poured from the MAL Hungarian Aluminium plant in Ajaka after a wall of a waste reservoir collapsed on October 4.
Hundreds of homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable after the toxic slurry washed through nearby villages. The spill led to nine deaths and dozens requiring hospital treatment for chemical burns.
Devecser residents are demanding full compensation from the government for their losses. They are also calling for clear information about the health risks associated with the red mud that covered hundreds of hectares of countryside.
However, police said the protest would be illegal as the area is still subject to an official state of emergency.
The "necessary measures to restore public order" would be taken if Devecser residents go ahead with their plan to set up a blockade on a nearby highway, police warned.
Csenki said the demonstration would go ahead, even if it must become an act of "civil disobedience".
The government seized control of MAL a week after the spill, and an inquiry is under way to establish who was responsible for what has been called Hungary's worst environmental disaster.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised the "severest possible" consequences if any owners or directors of the plant are found to have been negligent.
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