Hardy Russian schoolchildren in what claims to be the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on the planet have been filmed heading out to school in the sub-zero temperatures.
A video shows the well wrapped-up youngsters waiting for a bus on a pitch-black morning before walking the rest of the way in temperatures of minus 51C (-60F) in the Siberian village of Oymyakon.
In the village, school is only closed if the temperature is minus 52C (-62F) or lower for pupils aged 11 or under.
So the young students had to troop to their classes through snow, as frost and ice began to form on their eyelashes on Tuesday.
One child in a green coat appears to be walking solo to the school in the biting cold, before receiving a routine body temperature check at the door of his school due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Others are accompanied by their parents and pets.
Hardy Russian schoolchildren in what claims to be the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on the planet have been filmed heading out to school in the sub-zero temperatures
A video shows the well wrapped-up youngsters heading into school on a pitch-black morning in temperatures of minus 51C (-60F) in the Siberian village of Oymyakon
The trek came on what is believed to be the coldest school day anywhere in the world for primary age children - seven-to-ten year olds.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in the United Kingdom - minus 27.2C (-17F) in Scotland, is almost 24C (-11F) milder than the Siberian school day.
Older pupils at the same school - the only one in Oymyakon - are expected to be on time for classes unless the thermometers hit minus 56C (-69F) or lower by 6am.
The school was built in 1932 under Stalin and serves two neighbouring villages, Khara Tumul and Bereg Yurde.
The children receiving a routine body temperature check at the door of his school due to the Covid-19 pandemic
Local photographer Semyon Sivtsev told The Siberian Times that he had been filming around 9am on Tuesday and the temperature had been minus 51C (-60F).
'I had to keep my gloves on which was not very comfortable,' the photographer said. 'But otherwise my fingers would have been frostbitten.
'And I could only film in very short bursts.
'Local kids walk to school with their parents and often with dogs, too.
'Pupils from other villages have to take a bus to get here,' he said, adding it can take anything from 10 to 20 minutes.
Local children believe the icy temperatures have been brought by Chyskhaan, known here as the King of the Cold.
Since the autumn, he has been on a progress south from the Arctic bringing with him the bone-chilling Siberian cold.
He has two horns - one from a bull,the other from a woolly mammoth, according to legend.
At the end January his first horn falls off, and in middle February his second horn.
As the snow melts, he floats back to the Arctic in the vast Lena River before the ritual is repeated the following winter.
Even the coldest city in the world ,Yakutsk, the regional capital, does not require children to attend school in the bone-cracking conditions seen in Oymyakon on Tuesday.
There, classes for primary children are cancelled at minus 42C (-44F) with wind and minus 45C (-49F) without wind.
Older pupils stay at home if it is minus 48C (-54.4F) or below.