Excess levels of radiation have been recorded in Chernobyl after Russian forces took the city, a Ukrainian government organisation has claimed.
The State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine (SINR) said the exact reasons for increasing radiation in the seized city were unknown after the Russian invasion claimed Chernobyl yesterday.
But Russian officials have denied the allegations that there has been any increase in levels and said it would deploy paratroopers to guard the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
Now Norway's nuclear monitoring agency, has weighed in claiming it is concerned by "elevated" levels of radiation but added that they do not pose a "threat to health" in the area at present.
The Norwegian Directorate for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety released a statement saying they were in contact with Ukrainian authorities who had raised concerns.
Follow our live blog of the Russian Ukraine war here
In a statement, it said: "They have raised questions about whether the increased values are due to heavy vehicles that have whirled up radioactive pollution from the Chernobyl incident in 1986."
It continued that winds are currently blowing towards Russia at the moment but that if the wind direction changed it would be possible to measure very low levels in Norway as well.
Pre-invasion reports had already warned that uninhabited Chernobyl exclusion zone could become the first place to be captured by a Russian invasion due to its close proximity to the Russian border and troops positioned in Belarus.
The area has been largely uninhabited since the devastating explosion of a nuclear reactor in the town of Pripyat in April 1986 which left toxic levels of radiation across the land.
But the Ukrainian SINR claims that data from the automated radiation monitoring system of the exclusion zone, shows excessive levels of gamma radiation at a number of observation points.
Posting a statement on its Facebook page, it said: "Data from the automated radiation monitoring system of the exclusion zone, which is available online, indicate that the control levels of gamma radiation dose rate (red dots) have been exceeded at a significant number of observation points.
"But now it is currently impossible to establish the reasons for the change in the radiation background in the exclusion zone because of the occupation and military fight in this territory."
It said the rise was possibly due to a "disturbance of the topsoil due to the movement of a large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone and the release of contaminated radioactive dust into the air".
A spokesman for Russia's defence ministry refuted these claims, adding that troops were being deployed to stand guard of the closed power plant.
"Radiation levels at the plant are normal" he told a briefing today.
He added that since launching their full-scale military operation in Ukraine on Thursday, Russian troops have destroyed 118 Ukrainian military infrastructure sites.
Ukrainian officials had said it was 'impossible' to determine exactly what was causing the alleged increase in gamma radiation levels.
But the SINR later posted that some experts believe Russian troops moving in had kicked up radioactive dust on the ground as they sieged the city.
It said: "Such a fluctuation in the Askro sensor indicators, Ecocentre experts link to a breach of the upper layer of ground as a result of the movement of a large number of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone and lifting of air contaminated radioactive dust.
"The state of nuclear installations and other objects of the CAEC - without changes."
