KEMEROVO, Siberia – A massive mushroom cloud Sunday terrified locals in Siberia so much that they left the emergency services inundated with calls, fearing a nuclear attack.
The isolated cloud, in the industrial city of Kemerovo, bore the distinctive hallmark of a nuclear explosion, leading locals to believe that doomsday had arrived.
Others reasoned a blast may have occurred at one of the area’s many mines, for which the coal-rich Kuzbass region is renowned. In fact what they were seeing was a huge anvil cumulo-nimbus, formed after a thunderstorm caused clouds to be blown to the side, the Sputnik News reports.
The emergency services quickly calmed down the shocked locals, saying the formation was merely an ordinary rain cloud.
Local Sergey Zmaznev posted footage of the cloud on YouTube, showing the mushroom rising high into the atmosphere.
Sergey also posted images of the ominous cloud outside his home.
