Russians fear internment on the Island

A London law firm representing wealthy Russians has been investigating the history of Manx internment camps - in case war breaks out in future.

Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners says its clients are concerned about a possible future conflict between the UK and Russia.

And the firm's been asked to research Second World War internment as their clients try to predict what might happen to them.

Dimitry Afanasiev, the firm's chairman, was addressing a legal conference in London when he revealed the requests.

Mr Afanasiev said five of his high-net-worth clients had asked for the research, saying Russians had previously been interned in the Isle of Man.

During World War 2, there were camps in Douglas, Onchan, Peel, Port Erin and Ramsey, although they were much smaller than those of the First World War.

It's estimated around 10,000 enemy aliens were interned here on the Isle of Man.

Mr Afanasiev says the question his clients have all wanted answering is whether they'd be interned if there was a war between NATO and Russia.