Prosecutors in Chechnya are looking into how “catastrophic” levels of radioactivity were recorded at a factory in the Russian republic.

Radioactive levels at the plant were half those recorded at the Chernobyl plant in 1986, Russian TV reports. Investigators said the radiation posed a danger to people living near it in the region’s capital, Grozny.

The case has raised fears militants could use radioactive waste to build a crude nuclear bomb.

Radioactive materials have a variety of uses in the manufacturing industry. If not disposed of properly, radioactive waste can pose a serious threat to people nearby.

Chechen prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov is quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying the failure to remove the radioactive material or isolate access to the plant had made it “a threat to the population”. Radiation levels at one storage facility in the plant were 58,000 times higher than normal levels…