'World's most dangerous town' is completely abandoned and removed from maps
The 'most dangerous town in the world' is completely empty and has been wiped off the map - and with good reason.
While the UK's most dangerous town has a whopping 139.6 crimes per 1,000 people, just breathing in the air in this abandoned settlement in Australia is enough to kill you. Yikes.
You could even be prosecuted for just stepping foot in the ghost town - although I have no idea why anyone would want to.
That wasn't enough to dissuade one TikToker though, who shared the below video before it was completely shut off:
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Australian officials have literally wiped Wittenoom off the map in a bid to deter would-be tourists from heading there.
Of course, everyone wants what they can't have and some barmy explorers have even dubbed it a 'bucket-list' location.
The town's final resident gave up her fight to stay in May this year and got out of the way of the incoming bulldozers ready to flatten the place.
At its peak, more than 800 people had lived there. By 2015, there were just six. By last year, there was just 80-year-old Lorraine Thomas.
All roads into the outback town have been blocked while the demolition process is underway in a bid to stop spectators trying to catch a glimpse of Wittenoom.
You may be wondering why such a tiny, seemingly mundane spot has been the victim of such an intense smear campaign - but it's actually for your own good.
The once bustling mining town in the Pilbara region is actually deadly and sits in the middle of the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere.
In its heyday in the 1930s, thousands of people lived there and it had a thriving industry.
The land in Wittenoom was rich with blue asbestos, seeing hordes of Aussies flock there to get some work in the mines.
It became a typical town over the next three decades - with mining at the heart of it - but this way of life was actually killing locals.
The mines were eventually closed in 1996 as they were no longer making enough money, however, the human cost was much greater than any profit losses.
More than 2,000 workers and residents died as a result of breathing in the deadly fibres of blue asbestos.
The air remains toxic today - forcing the government to demolish buildings, seal off the waste dumps from the mines and disconnect Wittenoom from the national grid to deter visitors.
Despite clean-up efforts, three million tonnes of asbestos tailings were left behind.
Scrubbing the site would have cost around $20 million in the 1980s, but it would cost even more today.
The land will never be safe for human habitation due to the ongoing risk of asbestosis - but some people can't seem to resist having a look.
Former Wittenoom resident and retired Western Australia Greens MP Robin Chapple said security measures need to be stepped up, as daredevil tourists have continued to journey to the world's most dangerous town.
"If you keep on covering something up long enough, everybody will want to go and see it," told ABC News.
The Aussie also called on officials to get rid of the dangerous asbestos tailing still lingering at the site.
Chapple continued: "You just can't go around leaving contaminated sites saying, 'it's all too hard'.
"The government and the mining industry which allowed this to be developed, and actually poured money into the development, has a responsibility to clean up."
Topics: Australia, Travel, Health, World News
Olivia Burke