VICTIMS of The Great Plague have been discovered in a mass burial site during the construction of Crossrail.

About 3,000 skeletons have been unearthed in the huge grave during building work on the new service, which will link Brentwood to London.

Thirty skeletons are believed to belong to victims of the black death after a headstone marked 1665 wa s found nearby and the individuals appear to have been buried on the same day.

The amazing discovery was made during excavation of the Bedlam burial ground at Crossrail’s Liverpool Street site, which will allo w construction of the easter n entrance of the new station.

Jay Carver, Crossrail lead archaeologist, said: “The construction of Crossrail gives usarare opportunity to study previously inaccessible areas of London and learn about the lives and deaths of 16th and 17th Century Londoners.

“This mass burial, so different to the other individual burials found in the Bedlam cemetery, is likelyareaction to a catastrophic event.

“Only closer analysis will tell if this is a plague pit from The Great Plague in 1665 bu t we hope this gruesome, but exciting find will tell us mor e about the one of London’s most notorious killers.”

The skeletons will now be analysed by osteologists from Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), and scientific tests may reveal if bubonic plague or some other pestilence was the cause of death.

Mike Henderson, senior Osteologist at MOLA, said: “We hope detailed osteological analysis will help determine whether these people were exposed to The Great Plague and potentially lear n more about the evolution of this deadly disease.”

After examinations are complete the remains will be reinterred in Canvey.