Geologists on Thursday warned residents of a small Lithuanian village to refrain from digging wells or risk bursting one of a series of freak deadly carbon monoxide gas pockets that had been discovered underground.
The rare warning was delivered by the head of the Lithuanian Geology Service, Jonas Satkunas, who said his geologists found "deadly concentrations" that could be spread across an area of several square kilometers around Vajotai in south-west Lithuania.
"This is the first time we have established such a phenomenon," he told Reuters, adding that he had found no record of any such concentrations of carbon monoxide in Lithuania and research was now under way to establish what caused the pockets.
Two men digging a water well died last year from what was then believed to be methane gas poisoning, but Satkunas said he suspected they had been poisoned after hitting a pocket of carbon monoxide.