Siberia claims to find evidence of yeti

Officials in Siberia say they have found "indisputable proof" of the existence of yetis.

Local government officials in Kemerovo said footprints and possibly even hair samples belonging to the yeti - or abominable snowman - had been found on a research trip.

"During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the Snow Man," the Kemerovo region administration said.

The expedition was organised after Kemerovo's governor invited researchers from the US, Canada, and other countries to share their research and stories of encounters with the creature at a conference.

"They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The 'evidence' will be analysed in a special laboratory, it continued.

Kemerovo region's Shoria is a sparsely populated territory in Western Siberia that has historically been a territory of coal and metal mining.

The region, the administrative centre of Kuznetsk coal basin, has pursued the elusive yeti for several years as it tries to develop tourism into its mostly industrial economy.