Antarctica/South Africa - It sounds like the beginning of a horror movie: fear has broken out at a research station in Antarctica! A ten-person team is currently at the SANAE IV base on the coast of the ice masses. But one person in the group is causing great unrest and even appears to be threatening his colleagues, according to a recently published email.

The SANAE stations have been used as a base by South Africa for decades as part of an Antarctic research program.

SANAE-IV, which was completed in 1997, is currently home to ten people who were supposed to stay there for at least another ten months. However, there have apparently been threatening upheavals within the research team.

The South African Sunday Times recently published an e-mail sent by one of the researchers. It describes an atmosphere of fear.

"Regrettably, his behavior has escalated to a point that is deeply disturbing," the letter reads. "He has physically assaulted [person X], which is a serious breach of personal safety and work standards."

The news portal had made the author of the email and the accused unrecognizable. However, the accusations even went beyond a physical altercation!

"He threatened to kill [person X], creating a climate of fear and intimidation," writes the sender of the email. "I remain deeply concerned for my own safety and constantly wonder if I could be the next victim."

Meanwhile, Dion George, South Africa's Minister of Environment, shed some light on the mysterious matter: "There was a verbal altercation between the team leader and this person. Then the situation escalated and this person physically assaulted the leader." He wants to try to clarify the situation at the station.

But for the time being, the researchers are still stuck in Antarctica. It is not without reason that they are actually tested before their journey to find out whether they are mentally up to the task in the extreme conditions.