A section of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has collapsed under the weight of snow, officials say, raising new concerns about the condition of the facility that was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident.
There were no injuries after the accident nor any increase in radiation from the reactor that exploded in 1986, the country's emergency agency said.
French construction firms Vinci and Bouygues said today they had evacuated as a precaution around 80 employees working on a new protective shelter from the site.
"The preliminary reason for the collapse was too much snow on the roof," the emergencies agency said, adding that radiation levels were "within the norm".
The roof was constructed after the 1986 disaster but is not part of the sarcophagus structure covering the exploded reactor, it said.
However the collapse underlines concerns about the condition of the now defunct nuclear plant over two-and-a-half-decades after the explosion of reactor number four.
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