Scientific evidence has emerged for the first time indicating that the fall-out from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 may have raised cancer rates in western Europe.
Researchers in Sweden identified an unexpected increase in cancer in parts of the country exposed to the radiation cloud from the disaster.
They estimate that 300 more deaths may have occurred as a result of cancers acquired between 1988 and 1996.
The explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukraine killed 31 people and released a radiation cloud that dispersed across Europe.
In Ukraine, 3.7 million people were affected by radiation and more than 160,000 others had to be resettled.
