Police stop scavengers taking polluted metal from Chernobyl

Ukrainian police stopped three men who tried to take about a ton of highly radioactive scrap metal from near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Police detained the three, all Ukrainian citizens, in the Polissia area near the capital Kiev, the Interfax news agency said.

The men meant to sell the metal as scrap.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant was site of world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, and it was closed down in 2000. The metal taken was from within the 18-mile so-called exclusion zone around the plant that is considered highly contaminated and closed to visitors.

Scavengers hunting for scrap metal to sell are common in Ukraine, often damaging vital equipment or selling contaminated metals and even unexploded World War II shells.