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FALLOUT ZONE

Inside the ghostly abandoned remains of Chernobyl and Pripyat 32 years after nuke power plant disaster

THE ghostly remains of Chernobyl and the abandoned nearby town of Pripyat have been captured by an adventure photographer 32 years after the nuclear disaster.

Creepy images show a stalled Ferris wheel, baby cribs, classrooms filled with dusty desks and and a piano on a crumbling stage.

Gas masks litter the floor in one of the abandoned buildings in Pripyat, which was evacuated during the Chernobyl disaster
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Gas masks litter the floor in one of the abandoned buildings in Pripyat, which was evacuated during the Chernobyl disasterCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features

Other spooky shots show a chessboard left mid-game, a room full of children’s beds with stuffed toys left behind and bumper cars rusting after being left to face the elements.

Romanian photographer Cristian Lipovan travelled to the 18-mile exclusion zone around Chernobyl in Northern Ukraine to photograph the eerie ruins.

The power plant and nearby town Pripyat - once home to 50,000 people - remain more or less untouched three decades after they were evacuated.

Lipovan said: “In the photos, you can see the sad or the happy story of a people who once lived there.

Abandoned dolls lie on rows of children's beds in Pripyat
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Abandoned dolls lie on rows of children's beds in PripyatCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
Dusty desks in a former school, now eerily silent
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Dusty desks in a former school, now eerily silentCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
A rusting till in a shop at the once-bustling town where the power plant workers and their families lived
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A rusting till in a shop at the once-bustling town where the power plant workers and their families livedCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
The stalled fairground, inside the 18-mile exclusion zone, has become an attraction for adventurous sightseers
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The stalled fairground, inside the 18-mile exclusion zone, has become an attraction for adventurous sightseersCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
This game of chess, perhaps started while residents waited to be evacuated, was abandoned half-way through
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This game of chess, perhaps started while residents waited to be evacuated, was abandoned half-way throughCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features

“My expedition to Chernobyl and Pripyat was the most exciting adventure I have ever had.

"It changed my life – I now appreciate everything around me."

He says his next expedition will take him to Fukushima in Japan - which was abandoned after the nuclear disaster caused by a tsunami in 2011.

Chernobyl was the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident when the No.4 reactor overheated during a bungled safety test on the night of 25–26 April 1986.

The explosion and fire that raged for nine days sent radioactive particles into the atmosphere which spread across Europe.

Baby cribs stand in a row in ghost town Pripyat
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Baby cribs stand in a row in ghost town PripyatCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
Peeling paint and rusting bedsteads remain 32 years after the people left and never returned
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Peeling paint and rusting bedsteads remain 32 years after the people left and never returnedCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
Rusting bumper cars at the eerie fairground
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Rusting bumper cars at the eerie fairgroundCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
There is a still a piano on a crumbling stage
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There is a still a piano on a crumbling stageCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
Shoes left behind by a resident
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Shoes left behind by a residentCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
Another schoolroom standing silent 32 years after the last lesson
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Another schoolroom standing silent 32 years after the last lessonCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
A few renaining bits of furniture give clues to the people who called this home
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A few renaining bits of furniture give clues to the people who called this homeCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features
Some 50,000 lived in Pripyat in northern Ukraine. In the distance is a dome built over the Chernobyl reactor
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Some 50,000 lived in Pripyat in northern Ukraine. In the distance is a dome built over the Chernobyl reactorCredit: Mediadrumimages / Cristian Lipovan / Universal Features

At least 31 people died - including two at the scene and dozens more who succumbed to radiation sickness in the following weeks - but the number of deaths including from cancer could eventually hit 4,000.

The local town of Pripyat became uninhabitable because of radiation levels which are still dangerous today.

It has become an unlikely tourist attraction - but visitors are allowed only for a short period to limit their exposure.

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Last year another photographer captured the daunting legacy for a generation of youngsters growing up near the disaster site in the former USSR.

Work has begun on a massive shield designed to seal in the shattered reactor.

But scientists fear wolves living at the radioactive site are spreading mutant genes across Europe.

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