Loosely guarded radioactive materials in a chemical factory in Grozny, the bombed out capital of Chechnya, are threatening to cause a "catastrophic radioactivity situation" according to Chechen officials.

Radiation in the factory, which is owned by a state-run Chechen energy company, exceeds safety levels by 58,000 times, according to the Chechen prosecutor's office, which has opened a criminal investigation into conditions at the plant.

The levels of radiation equate to around half those experienced at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the immediate aftermath of the 1986 disaster, Rossiya state television reported.

"It’s a threat to the population because the leadership of the plant is taking no steps whatsoever to remove the radioactive material or isolate access to the plant," said Valery Kuznetsov, the Chechen prosecutor.

Mr Kuznetsov said the danger was posed by between 27 and 29 uncontrolled radioactive elements that are stored at the Grozny Chemical Factory. Some of the elements are believed to contain cobalt-60 isotopes.

The factory, which is owned by the state-owned Chechenneftekhimprom, was damaged during the 1999 bombardment of Grozny by the Russian army, according to Russian television, and has been left largely unsecured.

Radioactive materials enjoyed a broad range of industrial and agricultural uses in the former Soviet Union. Caesium-137, cobalt-60 and iridium-192 elements were used in lighthouses, large-scale measuring instruments, medical devices, sterilising equipment and even for germinating seeds on farms. As their radioactivity faded, thousands of elements were discarded and stored haphazardly.

Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense, an environmental group in Moscow, told the Associated Press it was likely that the elements in Grozny had been unsealed from their original devices and were now leaking.

Mr Slivyak said the reported radiation levels were a serious threat to local residents. Exposure for more than a few minutes would cause serious health problems and even death. He added that poorly guarded radioactive material was a perfect ingredient for a "dirty bomb", a mixture of conventional explosives and radioactive matter.

"The fact that we haven’t yet heard of terrorists making a dirty bomb means that either we soon will or that radioactive elements have already been sold abroad on the black market," he said.

• In a separate incident, a splash of molten metal killed a worker and severely injured two others at a nuclear power plant 50 miles west of St Petersburg. The accident, which occurred at a smelter in the Leningrad nuclear plant did not affect the reactors, according to the Russian nuclear agency.

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