Archaeologists have unearthed skeletons pinned down through their chests with iron rods – a practice to stop the dead from turning into vampires, Belfast Telegraph reported.

Bozhidar Dimitrov, head of the National History Museum in Sofia, said two skeletons from the Middle Ages were found in such a state last weekend near the Black Sea town of Sozopol.

He said that in some parts of Bulgaria corpses regularly had iron rods hammered through their hearts before being buried, even until the beginning of the last century.

The fear was that those who did evil in their lifetimes would return after death to feast on the blood of the living.