Britons warned of ‘radiation spikes’ in Moscow

The location is close to the city’s Domodedovo airport

Radiation check: A mobile laboratory close to the suspect location (Emergencies Ministry of Russia)

British visitors to Russia are being warned of “radiation spikes” detected on the southern outskirts of Moscow – close to one of the city’s busiest airports.

Reports in local media say the emissions are from a disused metals factory at 49 Kashirskoye Shosse in the suburb of Domodedovo.

The site is three miles from Domodedovo airport, the main gateway for British Airways flights from Heathrow.

The Foreign Office said: “The British Embassy Moscow is monitoring the situation.

“Whilst it is understood that radiation levels drop off significantly within a short distance of the site, you’re advised to avoid the site and, as a precaution, the immediate surrounding area.”

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has installed a mobile laboratory near the factory, which it claims allows “highly accurate monitoring of the level of radiation in the environment”.

A statement from the ministry, published by the state-owned news agency, Novosti, said: “Radiometric studies are being carried out at 49 Kashirskoye Shosse.

“No excesses in the level of the natural background of radiation have been recorded.”

In October 2019, Greenpeace claimed that radiation levels at another metals factory in southern Moscow were way above permissible levels, and much higher than at Chernobyl in Ukraine – site of a nuclear disaster in 1986.