Story By: Anastasia Smirnova, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Central European News 

These images show the skeletons and skulls of civilians – including women and babies – killed by the Nazis in World War II which have just been discovered in a mass grave.

The remains of 10 civilians were discovered in the Pytalovskiy district in Russia’s Pskov Oblast region north-western Russia by local volunteers.

Local media report that the team were initially looking for the bodies of two Red Army soldiers and they found the graves of one of the men.

However, after the body of the soldier was exhumed one of the walls of the grave reportedly collapsed revealing a mass grave containing 10 civilians.

The remains of the group of local civilians include a mother with a baby as well as the skeletons of teenagers.

Dmitriy Ershov from the volunteer organisation Poisk 97 specialising in looking for WWII artefacts said: “The people we found were chaotically spread in the grave and were marked by significant damage.”

Ershov concluded that the burial was not part of a village cemetery.

The remains have now been removed and taken to a local church of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb. They will be reburied according to the Orthodox tradition after undergoing some checks.

Large battles were fought in the area during WWII and there was a German railway built by prisoners of war passing through the area which provided the Nazi forces with supplies.

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