Divers find mystery 'jaws and skeleton' in Siberia's 'Loch Ness'

Unknown remains of a large creature have been found in Lake Labynkyr, say the first divers to ever reach its floor.

A dozen divers braved legends of monsters and the coldest winter temperatures in a venture that is likely to go into the Guinness World Book of Records.

Using an underwater scanner they discovered a jaw and skeletal remains that might be the notorious 'Devil' that was first reported by locals in the 19th century, it was claimed on 1 February.

Reports of a monster in Lake Labynkyr pre-date claims about the Loch Ness monster in Scotland, say Russian academics.

The lake in the Sakha Republic - or Yakutia - is seen as one of the most mysterious in the world because even in temperatures of minus 60C its waters do not completely freeze. Scientists struggle to explain this phenomenon.

The lake averages 52 metres in depth but has a mysterious underwater fissure which reaches down to 80 metres.

For the historic dive - the first time the floor of the lake has been conquered - the air temperature was minus 42C and the water 2C.

Earlier reports said that top Russian diver Dmitry Shiller, leader of the Russian Georgraphical Society Underwater Research Team, and his colleagues had reached the bottom and returned without any sign of the legendary monster.

'Dmitry Shiller did not meet the monster - but managed to film the bottom of the lake and took samples of the lake's flora,' said a spokesman.

But later it was claimed the team had found evidence of jaws and a skeleton using an underwater scanner, thought there was initially scant detail.

Still, the reports which echoed an account by a scientist in Soviet times who visited the lake.

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