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A polar bear invasion is terrorising Russians on a remote Arctic island after more than 50 beasts besieged the town.

A state of emergency has been called on Soviet nuclear testing archipelago Novaya Zemlya as predators walk “insolently” inside the front doors of apartment blocks.

Despite the siege, residents have been warned they face prosecution is they shoot the endangered species.

People are ‘afraid to go outside’ and ‘daily life is in turmoil’, said deputy head of the local administration, Aleksandr Minayev.

"Parents are wary of letting children to go to schools and kindergartens," he said.

"There are cases of aggressive behaviour of wild animals - attacks on people, penetration into residential and office buildings."

The archipelago's main settlement, Belushya Guba, has reported a total of 52 bears in its vicinity, with between six and 10 constantly on its territory.

Many of the residents of this bleak outpost are Russian military personnel.

Head of the local administration Zigansha Musin said: “I have been in Novaya Zemlya since 1983, yet I've never seen such a massive polar bear invasion.”

He warned the animals are “literally chasing people and even entering the entrances of residential buildings”.

Despite this, some go outside even when the bears are a few feet away.

The beasts have lost their trepidation of people and measures to deter them - like shooting in the air, sounding car horns and erecting fences around waste dump - have all failed, reported The Siberian Times.

But a request to Moscow to allow the shooting of some bears has met with a flat refusal from nature preservation apparatchiks.

The species are endangered and instead a team of specialists has been despatched to the outpost to advice residents on other measures to discourage the bears.

Yet there are acute concerns over attacks if action is not taken to scare away the bears.

Teachers have pleaded for security measures to protect pupils.

The bears come and go but there are always at least “six or ten” prowling the apartment blocks, said Minayev.

Resident Anastasia Bondarenko has moved out but she said the bears were no longer threatened by humans.

She said: “There are no more enemies…they became insolent. This is scary.

“When they walk under your window at night, it is creepy.”

The town, with a population of just under 2,000, is the main permanent settlement on Novaya Zemlya.

The archipelago in the Arctic was used by the USSR for nuclear tests.