Watch Drone Footage Explore Chernobyl From Above for the First Time

Areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 are still frozen in time, as haunting drone footage of the empty city of Pripyat reveals.

The scenes of rusted ferris wheels and abandoned buildings, shot by British filmmaker Danny Cooke for a CBS 60 Minutes segment that aired last week, mark the first time Chernobyl has been seen by air, The Guardian reports.

“Chernobyl is one of the most interesting and dangerous places I’ve been,” Cooke said. “There was something serene, yet highly disturbing about this place. Time has stood still and there are memories of past happenings floating around us.”

Some things are changing in Chernobyl, however: Scientists have observed what they believe is the first evidence of brown bears in the area in more than a century.

Though researchers had previously suspected that the bears had returned, cameras set up in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone actually caught a bear on video, the BBC reports.

“There have been suggestions that they have existed there previously but, as far as we know, no-one has got photographic evidence of one being present on the Ukrainian side of the exclusion zone,” said Mike Wood of the University of Salford.

[The Guardian] [BBC]