chernobyl - 30 years later
TRANSCRIPT
PowerPoint Show by Andrew ♫ Turn on Speakers
These eerie pictures show the abandoned homes, rusting fairground attractions and overgrown infrastructure among the ruins of a Ukrainian community less than two miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
They show radioactive warning signs, abandoned tower blocks and a crumbling amusement park with dodgems and a Ferris wheel creaking in the wind.
Once a bustling home to 50,000 residents, the town was built less than two miles from the country’s first nuclear power plant to house scientists and workers serving the plant, and security troops.
Tragedy struck on April 26 1986, as one of the reactors deep inside the Chernobyl power plant went into meltdown, sparking the world’s worst nuclear disaster and sending radioactive particles into the air.
Despite the stark, barren sights, tourists are flocking in increasing numbers to the Ukrainian disaster site, although the zone is still classed as uninhabitable.
A cross with a crucifix is seen in the deserted town of Pripyat near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.
Two bumper cars lie face to face in the rusting remains of an amusement park in the abandoned town of Pripyat near Chernobyl.
Warning: Red and yellow signs are still in place in and around the empty town which is under two miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Tragedy struck on April 26 1986, as one of the reactors deep inside the Chernobyl power plant went into meltdown, sparking the world’s worst nuclear disaster and sending radioactive particles into the air.
Images include toys fitted with children's gas masks discarded among the rusting beds of a nursery in the town of Pripyat near Ukraine's northern border with Belarus.
A plastic doll lies abandoned on a rusting bed, 30 years after the town was evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster.
Buildings can be seen today nearly exactly as they were left during the emergency evacuation, with many possessions such as toys lying discarded.
Once a bustling home to 50,000 residents, the town was built less than two miles from the country’s first nuclear power plant to house scientists and workers serving the plant, and security troops.
A Ferris Wheel is seen in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
The amusement park was left to rust after the town was abandoned in the wake of the catastrophic nuclear melt down in 1986.
The coat of arms of the former Soviet Union is seen on the roof of a Soviet-era housing complex in the heart of the empty community.
The inside of one of the many abandoned houses now becoming increasingly hidden in the undergrowth growing up around the town.
A child's crib lies abandoned in a house in the abandoned town. Many items were simply left behind as people fled from the area.
Items of clothing, toys, furniture and other household items were simply abandoned as thousands fled from the town 30 years ago.
A picture of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin is seen in a kindergarten in the abandoned city of Pripyat.