Tragedy as dozens of reindeer are killed beside remote Russian railway leading to one of Stalin’s old gulags
Gruesome pictures show bloody carcasses of animals killed next to the dictator's infamous 'Arctic Express'
RUSSIAN cops are probing the death of 70 reindeer on the tracks of a Siberian railway built to transport Josef Stalin's political prisoners to his notorious Gulags.
Gruesome pictures show the bloody carcasses of animals killed next to the dictator's 'Arctic Express', one of the world's most remote railways.
Police say a train ploughed through the herd in the one-track Chum to Labytnangi line, on the permafrost Yamal peninsula.
Yet the driver did not report the massacre, nor did he seemingly make any attempt to slow or stop his train with a maximum speed of around 60mph.
"Sceptics ask why the timid deer would have remained on the snowy track when the trundling train approached, and not scattered long before the engine got close"
"And yet some at least of the carcasses seem to have injuries consistent with being struck by a moving train.
"But could the train really have killed 70?"
It is unclear why the animals, presumably hearing the train approach, did not flee.
"We are investigating what train it was, freight or passenger, where it was going, and what circumstances led to knocking down the herd," said a police spokesman in Shuryshkarsky district.
The director of Gorkovsky Farm, Vitaly Askarin, confirmed the reindeer had been killed but "refused to give more details", reported Ura.ru.
The damage from loss of animals was estimated as 3.5 million roubles - around £45,000.
The line originally formed part of an elaborate project by Stalin to build a giant railway network in Russia's inhospitable Arctic regions.
The plan was aborted after his death.
Thousands of political prisoners perished during its construction.
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