Revenge of the mutant vegetables? Pictures of crops 'deformed by fall-out of Fukushima nuclear disaster' sweep Asia. . . but is it all just a hoax?

Series of snaps apparently showing 'mutant vegetables' have emerged online

They were posted by a Korean website - it is not clear when they were taken

Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown worst since Chernobyl

The fall out from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster two years ago appears to have found its way into the food chain, as a series of snaps apparently showing 'mutant vegetables' have emerged online.



A Korean website has published pictures of flowers, vegetables and fruit covered with deformities and lumps.



But it is not immediately clear where the produce was farmed from, whether the images have been doctored and whether the nuclear disaster is in fact to blame.



Scroll down for video



An apparently mutated tomato looks as if it has exploded into mutant form. It has been claimed the fallout from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster four years ago has found its way into the food chain

These two peaches seem to have doubled. Flowers, vegetables and fruit with deformities and lumps have been photographed and shared on website Igmur

Left, four oranges appear to be joined at the stem, and left a mushroom looks to have been speared by its own stalk.



T he Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown was triggered by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in 2011.

The disaster - which claimed the lives of 18,500 people - was the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.

While none of the deaths have been attributed to radiation exposure from the meltdown, high levels of radiation have been detected in groundwater near the plant. Among the 'mutant vegetables' is a giant tomato apparently bubbling with tumours, a five-fingered turnip, and two peaches which have grown into figures of eight.

A vegetable grower holds a 'mutant cabbage' as his companion holds aloft a normal sized comparison While the fruit looks to have mutated it it is not immediately clear where the produce was farmed from, whether the images have been doctored and whether the nuclear disaster is in fact to blame Two gardeners hold cabbages aloft - one a normal size - the other at least four times bigger.

And in one picture a cucumber seems to have formed into a strange hybrid with leaves erupting from the base. Earlier this year a fish caught close the the Fukushima nuclear plant was over 2,500 times the legal safe radiation limit for seafood, the plant's operator revealed. The company Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) caught the fish, dubbed 'Mike the Murasai' online, in the bay close to the Fukukshima Daiichi main reactor.

It was confirmed by Tepco to have amounts of radioactive cesium equal to 254,000 becquerels per kilogram, or 2540 times the limit of 100 becquerels/kg set for seafood by the government.

A tomato appears to have green shoots sprouting out of it Among the 'mutant vegetables' is a giant tomato apparently bubbling with tumours, a five-fingered turnip



A report in October last year found radiation levels in most kinds of fish caught off the coast of Fukushima haven't declined in the year following Japan's nuclear disaster in March 2011.



An earthquake knocked out nuclear plant's cooling system, causing three reactor cores to melt and spew radiation into the ocean.



Researchers believe that deposits of the chemical ce sium on the seafloor or leakage from the damaged reactors is continuing to contaminate the waters - and has the potential to threaten fisheries for decades.



The levels in the fish are also 10 times higher than the radiation measured last August in scorpion fish caught near Fukushima.

A sunflower has apparently grown in the centre of another plant in this picture uploaded on to Imgur

The Fukushima disaster - which claimed the lives of 18,500 people - was the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl meltdown in 19

The Japanese Embassy has contacted us since the publication of our item and asked us to clarify that there is no evidence to suggest that the images are related to the Fukushima incident. It adds that the percentage of fish caught off Fukushima measuring above 100Bq/kg fell from 53% after the incident to 5.4% earlier this year according to a survey.



