THE Russian news agency Tass reported an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on April 28, 1986. Its report, however, did not give any details about casualties, but said aid was being sent to the injured. The report said one reactor ha

THE Russian news agency Tass reported an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on April 28, 1986.

Its report, however, did not give any details about casualties, but said aid was being sent to the injured.

The report said one reactor had been damaged but lacked details about the incident except to say measures were being taken to "eliminate the consequences of the accident".

Monitoring stations in Sweden, Finland and Norway reported there had been sudden high discharges of radioactivity in the atmosphere.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant just north of Kiev consisted of four reactors and experts said the level of radioactivity recorded showed the nuclear core of the damaged reactor may have melted down.

The Chernobyl Forum, set up by a number of bodies, estimated 9,000 people could eventually die from radiation exposure, although Greenpeace claimed the figure could be up to 93,000.

The contamination spread across neighbouring Belarus and the official 18-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains.