Biological warfare troops have been rushed to the Russian Arctic amid growing concerns over a serious anthrax outbreak. A total of 40 people - more than half of them children - are now hospitalised amid fears they may have contracted the deadly infection.
This follows the death of 1,200 reindeer suspected of contracting the disease after a contaminated corpse - buried at least 70 years ago - thawed because of a heatwave in the Yamal peninsula in northern Siberia.
Russian experts have blamed global warming for the prolonged high temperatures - of up to 35C - at the Tarko-Sale Faktoria camp, north of the Arctic Circle.
There were dramatic scenes as the Russian army's Chemical, Radioactive and Biological Protection Corps, equipped with masks and bio-warfare protective clothing, flew to to regional capital Salekhard on a military Il-76 aircraft to deal with the emergency.
They were deployed by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to carry laboratory tests on the ground, detect and eliminate the focal point of the infection, and to dispose safely of dead animals.
Eight new people were admitted for observation to hospital in Salekhard on Friday, bringing the total to 40, said officials, as reported by The Siberian Times.
"As of now, there is no single diagnosis of the dangerous infection," said a spokesman for the governor of Yamalo-Nenets, Dmitry Kobylkin.
Those in hospital are all from a dozen nomadic families who herd reindeer in the far north of Russia.
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