Video: Passengers Freeze Inside a Bus as Snow-storm Engulfs Russia Arctic

The first bus ride back to work after New Year is never pleasant – but it was particularly brutal for commuters in the Russian Arctic Circle city of Norilsk. 

Passengers filmed themselves getting snowed on inside the vehicle after it broke down in bone-chilling temperatures of -15F (-26C) with some windows suck open.

Local Lyubov Sedova said the bus was stuck for 40 minutes as winds of 65mph whipped passengers with snow and ice before they could get moving again.

‘This is just our typical winter bus ride,’ said another local, who didn’t want to be named. ‘Heating often doesn’t work, and some windows might be missing.

‘If this looks like something unusual to you, well you are welcome to Norilsk to experience this – and a lot more.’

Norilsk is the world’s second largest city above the Arctic circle after Murmansk, and one of the northernmost cities in the world.

Residents experience nine months of winter per year, including several months of complete darkness, and even summer often fails to melt snow on the ground.

Built by Russian prisoners in 1935, the city sits on top of some the largest nickel, copper and palladium deposits in the world.

There are no roads leading to the city, and the only way to get there is by plane or boat, which only travels in the summer.

Home to 175,000 people, visitors can only travel here with express permission of Norlisk Nickel, the company which owns the town – with permits rarely granted.