DNA taken from the skeletons of plague victims in medieval London has unearthed a shocking revelation – the Black Death is still present today.
Bodies of victims, who were buried in a mass ‘plague graves’ in the capital, show that part of the same sequence of genes still exists, hundreds of years later.
The Black Death claimed the lives of one-third of Europe's population in just five years from 1348 to 1353.
Killer: The Yersinia pestis bacteria which caused the Black Death is still present today
THE KILLER PLAGUE
Filthy living conditions in 14th Britain have been blamed for allowing the Black Death to spread.
It remains one of the most destructive pandemics in history which peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350.
Experts say it reduced the world's population from an estimated 450 million to almost 350 million in 1400.
In 1603 the killer plague returned and killed 38,000 Londoners.
Scientists have now confirmed that Yersinia pestis which is known to cause cases of the plague today was also responsible for the brutally damaging bubonic plague which almost wiped out Europe.
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