A RUSSIAN-speaking student has offered a familiar welcome to children from the area which suffered the world's worst nuclear disaster 30 years ago.

Fourteen youngsters, aged between eight and ten, were welcomed by sixth form students at The King's Academy, in Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, after travelling from their home in Belarus, Russia, which bore 70 per cent of the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

The children, who are staying with host families during their four-week visit, spent the day at The King's Academy making cookies and art masks and took part in music lessons and team sports with the help of interpreter Tania Vaskovskaia and Russian-born student Daniela Cebotari.

Daniela, 15, of Middlesbrough, who lived in Russia until she was eight years old, said: “This is the fourth year that I have helped to translate for the children. They are always surprised at first when I start talking Russian to them as they think I am English.

“Their faces really light up when I speak to them and they tell me that they love our school, that it is really pretty and they really like being in England.”