Thousands of massive snowballs form on Russian beach

Result of ice being rolled by wind and water and turning the crystals into giant spherical objects

Thousands of massive snowballs have been found on a beach in north-west Siberia.

An 11 mile stretch of coastline in the Arctic Circle has been covered with clumps of snow which are as large as three feet across.

The snowballs were a result of ice being rolled by wind and water and turning the crystals into giant snowballs.

Locals from the village of Nyda, have said they have never seen anything like it.

A village administrator told The Siberian Times the snowballs formed when the Gulf of Ob, a bay of the Arctic Ocean, rose onto land and covered the beach in ice, the Daily Mail reported.

As the water retreated the remaining ice chunks continued to grow as they rolled over until they formed massive snowballs.

The news comes as the Met Office warned of an icy polar vortex descending from the Arctic and causing temperatures to plummet in the UK.

There is an "increased risk of cold snaps between now and Christmas,” the forecaster said in a recent blog post.