Pripyat Middle School No.3 (“Gas Mask School”), Chernobyl

On Sportinaya Street in Pripyat, lies Pripyat Middle School No. 3. This is one of five secondary schools in the city of Pripyat. Middle School 1 collapsed in 2005, but this decaying school still remains relatively intact Creaking wooden-framed windows away in the wind, and doors lay torn from their hinges by decades of looters. Ruined classrooms and long empty corridors and peeling paint encircle the large overgrown central courtyard. Metal thieves have stolen radiators and anything  of value, leaving the classrooms devoid of valuables and littered with discarded scraps. Several classrooms still contain original desks, drawings and tattered text books  and occasional photos of school children can also still be found.

The floors of the side rooms and halls of Pripyat Middle School No. 3 are littered with crates, with their contents strewn on the floor. Hundreds of Russian-made gas masks from the cold war era were stored at the school to protect against biological, nuclear and chemical attack. Most are small, mid-sized versions. Looters has ransacked this gas mask store in store of precious metals inside the filters.

Pripyat Middle School No. 3, and the town of Pripyat, was evacuated in the weeks after the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (26th April 1986).

Nearby is a well-known sports facility, housing sports halls and the Azure Swimming Pool which was also photographed on this day.