Credit: East2West
Tests carried out found CO levels in Kalachi were 10 times higher than normal.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Berdybek Saparbayev said: "The cause of the bizarre sleeping illness has been determined.
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"After numerous medical tests, our researchers have confirmed that carbon monoxide is to blame for sleeping epidemic in Kalachi village."
Russian scientist Leonid Rikhvanov said the carbon monoxide had made its way way from the disused mines and smothered the village.
He said: "To describe it simply, when the uranium mines were abandoned, they began to fill with ground water.
Credit: East2West/Vera Salnitskaya