Inside the ghost town abandoned after a blast that can be reached only via 'road of bones'

There is an eerie Russian ghost town long abandoned, which can be found along a route known as the "road of bones".

The road was built by prisoners who suffered appalling conditions in one of the harshest regions in Russia to complete a route linking a series of mines.

Established as a gulag before taking shape as a mining town, Kadykchan formed part of a region called Kolyma - a name that reportedly still sparks fear among some Russians.

The area was developed by dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1930s as the Soviet Union sought to exploit gold, metal and mineral deposits during the country's industrialization.

Forced labour was used down Kolyma's mines and to build Kadykchan. After the gulags closed, many of the former prisoners remained in the town and, by the 1980s, it reportedly counted nearly 10,000 residents.

The decline of coal production and the slow collapse of the Soviet Union itself led to an exodus from Kadykchan as people sought work and better lives outside the region.

In 1992, one of the town's two mines closed down. As the 1990s progressed, there were just a few hundred people left in the town.

Then, on November 15 1996, six people were killed in a pit explosion, in what describes as the last nail in the coffin for the town's mine, which it said was already destined for closure.

A methane blast tore through the mine, stopping all work and leading officials to start negotiating its closure.

The mine was blown up and mine shaft flooded in 1998, ending the town's 60-year-long coal mining industry.

By the 2000s, the remaining residents were being offered small amounts of cash in the form of certificates to leave the town, which is now hailed as "the largest ghost town" in Siberia.

Nowadays, the people left walking Kadykchan's streets are tourists eager for an apocalyptic travel experience.

The empty shells of Soviet-era blocks of flats, abandoned school classrooms and a cinema are among the sites which remain in the creepy town.

However, only dilapidated remains can be found of some of the town's main buildings as the local council set fire to them.

Modern visitors looking for an eerie experience are warned they enter at their own risk, with the ghost town not officially open to tourists.