A rushed cull of Denmark's farmed mink population over concerns about a COVID-19 mutation has left the country facing a new horror, as some of the dead bodies of the animals have started to re-emerge from the earth.

The dead mink were seen to have resurfaced in a military training field outside the country's western town of Holstebro, where thousands of the culled animals had been buried in a mass grave.

"The gases cause the [bodies of the] animals to expand and in the worst cases, the mink get pushed out of the ground," said Jannike Elmegaard of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.

Elmegaard said it has affected "a few hundred" animals.  

The environment ministry said the bodies of the mink should be covered by at least 150 centimeters of earth. 

However, according to Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR, they were only buried under 100 centimeters of soil.

Leif Brogger, a local politician, told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, "The authorities are playing with our environment and using it as a dumping ground."

Adding to the frustration, the animals had been buried too close to a lake, raising fears of phosphorus and nitrogen pollution, though officials have promised to resolve this situation.

The ministry insisted the mink's emergence from their graves was a "temporary problem tied to the animals' decaying process."

"To avoid potential problems for animals and humans, the area will be monitored 24 hours a day until a fence is put up," said the ministry.

In early November, Denmark, which is the world's largest exporter of mink fur, announced it would cull all of the country's more than 15 million mink after a mutated version of the novel coronavirus was discovered and believed to jeopardize the effectiveness of future vaccines.

This led to a political crisis over the legality of the decision and the government concluded last week that the potential threat to human vaccines had been "very likely extinguished," in the absence of any new cases of the mutated version.  

More than 10 million mink have already been culled in the Scandinavian country, according to the latest tally.

Mette Frederiksen, Denmark's prime minister, on Thursday personally apologized for the handling of the crisis.

Frederiksen was visiting a mink farmer in the municipality of Kolding, whose animals were euthanized despite being healthy. 

It has since been proved the government had no legal right to do so.

Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2: "I don't have any issues with apologizing for the course of events, because mistakes have been made."

Frederiksen paused several times to wipe away tears, and stressed it was important to remember that it was not the fault of the breeders.

"It is because of corona, and I hope that can be a small light in the dark at this point for Danish mink breeders," Frederiksen added.

Mogens Jensen, Denmark's agriculture minister, also apologized and ultimately resigned last week.

Video Editor: Sam Cordell