These are the most dangerous islands in the world

When you think of Insel, you often think of the four S’s: summer, sun, beach and fun. But watch out! Not everything on every island is as paradisiacal as one imagines; some are even flammable. We’ve put together the ten most dangerous in the world for you.

At first glance, this island in the Baltic Sea looks extraordinarily idyllic. But it houses the oldest virology research facility in the world, founded in 1910 by Friedrich Loeffler. In the 1990s, the few residential buildings were still open to the public, but that is now prohibited. If you want to get in or out of here, you have to go through a complicated procedure. In 2020, a research institute for animal health also started working there. In the course of this, even more high-security labs were created.

A picturesque island off the coast of Brazil – not a soul in sight. There is a lighthouse on the stony coast – nearby is the abandoned house of the former lighthouse keeper. The ideal opportunity to relax? Not even close! Because the Brazilian government has banned access to the island for a good reason: thousands of specimens of the golden lance viper – one of the most venomous snakes in the world – live here. For this reason, the island is also called “Snake Island”.

The next dangerous island is called Miyake-jima and is located in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan. About 2,300 people live on the eleven kilometer long volcanic island. But since the volcano has erupted several times in its history and toxic gases have been constantly escaping since 2005, residents are required to always have a gas mask on hand – in case of emergencies.

Saba is the smallest island of the Netherlands Antilles in the eastern Caribbean. It has a diameter of about 4.5 kilometers. “Oh, how sweet!” – Be aware, this island is small, but powerful. In the past 150 years, the tiny island has been hit by hurricanes more often than any other region on Earth.

The residents of North Sentinel Island, the Sentinelese, don’t like guests. They fight back against anyone who gets too close to their small island east of India. The island is only about 75 square kilometers in size, the official population is 39, but it could be considerably more. Nobody really knows. Because many visitors have not yet set foot on the island.

When a cargo ship capsized off the island in 1981, it was only thanks to a typhoon that the 33 men aboard the “Primrose” survived: because of the high waves, the hostile natives could not row their canoes to the ship or use their weapons. . The crew was gradually rescued by helicopter. Attempts to make contact fail time and again. Visits have also been strictly prohibited since 1996. Ten years later, in 2006, two fishermen approaching North Sentinel Island were found dead off the coast of the island. In 2018, an American died on the coast. The man wanted to convert the islanders.

Bikini Atoll… That sounds like a Pacific island with lots of palm trees, a powdered sugar beach and turquoise blue water. It is correct. So in your bathing suit and into the water? D rather not! Bikini Atoll is known for two dangerous factors. On the one hand, the atoll was the scene of harmful nuclear weapons tests by the US between 1946 and 1958. The first settlers did not return until 1997, when the island was again declared “safe”. But with hardly anyone fishing in the waters, the shark population there has increased. Bathing fun? No!

Gruinard Island is a few kilometers off the Scottish coast: green, uninhabited, idyllic. But the same applies here: caution is the mother of the porcelain box! During World War II, Gruinard Island experimented with anthrax pathogens. Upon completion of the trials, the pathogen spores were found to have seeped into the soil and permanently contaminated it. It wasn’t until 1986 that the island was “decontaminated” with tons of formaldehyde. In 1990, the British Ministry of Defense declared the island habitable again, but no one has dared to go there until now.

43 kilometers west of San Francisco’s main attraction, the Golden Gate Bridge, are the Farallon Islands. However, between the 1940s and 1970s, radioactive waste was dumped near the islands. However, according to the British “Telegraph”, the exact location, size and risk of the nuclear waste are not known. It should be safer to leave the environmental sins there than to move them. Except for research stations, the islands are uninhabited. Only a large population of sea lions make use of the islands – which in turn attract other guests: great white sharks.

This entry in the Guinness Book of Records sounds strange at first. But in 1945, a disaster happened on Ramree Island off the coast of Myanmar, which is what caused this entry. During World War II, British troops fought against Japanese forces on the island. About 400 Japanese soldiers were forced to flee to the island’s swamps. But the swamp was their downfall, because here they encountered a huge number of saltwater crocodiles that live on Ramree Island.

Danger Island is located about 800 kilometers south of the Maldives. The uninhabited island is about two kilometers long and provides perfect conditions for coconut trees to grow. But harvesting the delicious coconuts is almost impossible. Because the island owes its name to the fact that ship travelers can hardly anchor for it. If you try, you risk your life. This was often the undoing of the early discoverers in particular.

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