BUDAPEST, Hungary, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Construction workers in Hungary were scrambling to complete three emergency dams before an expected second toxic spill from an aluminum plant, officials said.
A spokesman for the country's emergency services department said Tuesday the wall of the reservoir, which still holds almost 18 million cubic feet of the toxic red sludge, is showing signs of cracks and ruptures, CNN reported.
The amount still in the reservoir is about half the amount that spilled a week ago into three villages, killing eight people and injuring hundreds.
Officials had said the emergency dams would be completed Tuesday but later changed that to Wednesday morning.
About 800 people have been evacuated from the village of Kolontar below the reservoir, and troops were on standby to rescue inhabitants of a nearby village if the reservoir wall collapses.
The head of the company that operates the plant was arrested Monday on charges of public endangerment and harming the environment, authorities said.
The company was doing its best "to avoid further damages and to reinforce the injured deposit," it said in a statement.
