A historian has unearthed previously unseen diaries documenting the fall of Leningrad and the consequential famine that ripped across the Russian city, plunging many of its residents into cannibalism.

The German army blockade of the city ran from September 1941 to January 1944 – lasting 872 days and causing the deaths of more than 800,000 people.

Professor Alexis Peri from Boston University discovered the diaries during the course of his research in Russian archives, and first-hand accounts provide a fresh view of the level of deprivation that faced many people.

The German army surrounded the city just 11 weeks after invading Russia, and what followed was a slow spiral into starvation.

Dr Peri collated the diary entries and published them in a book called The War Within: Diaries From the Siege of Leningrad.