Vanishing lake - I thought the Americans had done it!

Residents of a village in central Russia are trying to solve the mystery of a lake that disappeared overnight from nearby the village of Bolotnikovo in Nizhny Novgorod region.

Local officials say the lake was probably sucked into an underground cave. "It looks like somebody has pulled the plug out of a gigantic bath,". Rescuers were called out to search the uncovered lake bed to see if anybody could have been sucked under, but it is thought no-one was on the lake when the waters vanished.

"It's very dangerous. If somebody is caught by such a calamity, the chances of survival are practically nil," fireman Dmitry Zaitsev said, pointing out that lakeside trees appeared to have been dragged down with the water. "Several houses were swallowed up in similar circumstances 70 years ago."

But more supernatural explanations were circulating among the villagers, including the influence of dark forces. Older residents said the lake had appeared during the reign of the feared Tsar Ivan the Terrible and had been "shrouded in dark mystery" ever since. "We used to go swimming there, but we were rather afraid of its depth, and there were various rumours. For instance people said there used to be a church there underwater. "

But one elderly villager sitting outside her house had another kind of force in mind.

"I thought the Americans had got here," she said