A pollution nightmare has hit a village as the soot in the air is turning the snow landing on residents black.
Locals in Omsukchan, in the Russian region of Magadan say that the colder it gets in winter, the blacker their snow is.
Images show the sinister black snow and ice in one of the world’s coldest inhabited territories, where Stalin sent political prisoners to work in forced labour Gulag prison camps.
Residents have complained that children's playgrounds are covered in the black snow.
In a video posted by a resident she can be heard saying: “This is a playground in Omsukchan village.
“It’s January, our children are out there playing in black snow. This is how we live here in the 21st century.”
Another resident added: "This is Omsukchan village and the snow is black - completely black.”
Residents say that despite complaints ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago, nothing changes.
“Our children still breathe soot,” said another resident. “Nothing ever seems to change here.”
Officials accept that the cause of the nightmare in Omsukchan and neighbouring Seimchan is a coal-burning hot water plant.
They say it is vital as a heating source for flats and houses in the area, famed for gold-mining as well as coal extraction.
With temperatures this month dipping to minus 50c and below, the heating plants in Magadan region burn extra coal, causing the back snow in Omsukchan and other villages.
Oksana Gerasimova, the head of the Srednekansky district, told Magadan Pravda newspaper: “Ash collectors are installed at the heating plants, which may not be able to cope with cleaning at such a time."
She admitted that the area had suffered "smoke, and ashes, and snow black as night”.
But she added: “This is not [a] reason to worry.”
Plans are underway to upgrade the filters in the heating plants to stop pollution.
