‘Road of bones’ discovered in Siberia
Remains may date back to the Russian Civil War
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Your support makes all the difference.Law enforcement are investigating a “road of bones” that appeared in Siberia, after a human skull and bones were discovered on a highway in the region of Irkutsk.
The grim incident took place after municipal crews de-iced roads using sand containing bones, reportedly from ground near a local cemetery. The skull is believed to be about 100 years old.
Photos were posted online showing the frozen bones and skull on the surface of the road in the Siberian town of Kirensk, some 5,400km east of Moscow.
Nikolay Trufanov, a local politician for the ruling United Russia party condemned the incident in a Facebook post, writing: "In Kirensk, sand containing skulls and bones was put on the roads. According to preliminary information, communal workers took sand from the territory near the cemetery.
"I can’t even describe how ugly this is. I hope law enforcement agencies will investigate what happened as quickly as possible." He added that he will be “watching to see that the perpetrators are punished”.
The remains may have come from an area close to a Russian Civil War-era burial site, according to a state television channel.
"According to preliminary data, a logging enterprise took soil along Yakutskaya Street to fill the road at the request of the administration of the Kirensky district. According to unofficial information, these are fragments of old graves from the Civil War," an administration official told RBC.
The discovery attracted comparisons to another road of bones – the 1,250-mile Kolyma highway in Siberia that was built by gulag labourers during Stalin’s rule. Some 250,000 people are believed to have died building the highway between Yakutsk to Magadan.
The remains unearthed in Kirensk have been collected and work on the road has been paused, according to Russian media sources, while the region’s interior ministry has launched an investigation into the incident.
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