Fears are growing in Sweden over packs of radioactive wild boar moving north across the country. One animal shot by hunters was found to have more than 10 times the safe level of radiation.

The high radiation levels — which come 31 years after the Chernobyl disaster sent a cloud of radioactive dust over Sweden — have left hunters afraid to kill and eat the animals.

Ulf Frykman, who works for the environmental consultancy Calluna, this week issued an alert to local hunters in the country of Gävle, about 100 miles north of Stockholm, warning them of “extremely high” radiation levels among local boar.

“This is the highest level we’ve ever measured,” he told the Telegraph, after testing an animal in Tärnsjö, a village between the cities of Uppsala and Gävle, with a radiation level of 16,000 becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg).

Of the 30 samples of boar his team have tested this year, only six have been below the safe limit of 1,500 Bq/kg.

As the soil in some areas north of Tärnsjö are more than twice as contaminated, radiation levels among boar are only expected to rise.