After the catastrophic accident in the nearby nuclear reactor, the city of Pripyat had to be completely evacuated. Some 50,000 people left their homes forever. DW visited the town with a former resident 40 years later.

This Sunday marks 40 years since the Chernobyl disaster, which the UN says affected more than 3.5 million people and contaminated nearly 50,000 square kilometres of land, and which remains the worst nuclear accident in history, as France Télévisions gains rare access to the site for a closer look.