The victims were buried with sickles across their necks and stones under their chins

               The scientists claim that the burials appear to match with a time when cholera epidemics were prevalent in Eastern Europe and these may have been the first people to die in outbreaks.

                 Dr Lesley Gregoricka, from University of South Alabama, who led the work, said: 'People of the post-medieval period did not understand how disease was spread.

                 'Rather than a scientific explanation for these epidemics, cholera, and the deaths that resulted from it, were explained by the supernatural - in this case, vampires.'

                   Vampire legends have suggested that the power of the undead can be passed to their victims through their bite, much like a disease.