Twenty die on Russian submarine

2:47 pm on 10 November 2008

More details have been issued about the deaths of at least 20 people in an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine.

The BBC reports that a fire extinguishing system was activated by mistake during sea trials in the Sea of Japan.

The Russian Pacific Fleet said the dead were sailors and shipyard workers.

They were suffocated by freon gas, which is used to put out fires by removing oxygen from the air.

The vessel was not damaged and there was no radiation leak.

It is the worst incident for the navy since the sinking of the Kursksubmarine in the Barents Sea in 2000, which left 118 dead.

However, the name and class of the submarine involved have not been officially revealed.

Reports say the incident occurred in the nose of the submarine. The nuclear reactor, which is in the stern, was not affected.

There were 208 people on board at the time, 81 of whom were servicemen.

Official toll

The dead are reported to be six sailors and 14 civilians.

Twenty-one injured people, reported to be suffering from various degrees of poisoning, were transferred from the submarine to the destroyer Admiral Tributs and taken to hospitals near Vladivostok.

The dead were transferred to morgues nearby after the vessel returned to port at Bolshoi Kamen, near Vladivostok, in the far eastern Primorsky territory.

The navy said the incident happened after the fire extinguishing system "went off unsanctioned".

The RIA Novosti news agency reports the vessel was the K-152 Nerpa, an Akula-class submarine, but this has not been confirmed.

The Nerpa is due to be leased to the Indian navy.

According to the website Indian Defence, Indian naval personnel were due to travel to Vladivostok earlier this month to train on board the submarine before its transfer.