TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
14 submariners killed in fire in Russia: defence ministry
Russian Defense Minsitry said 14 submarine crew were killed in a fire.
Change Size
A file picture taken in Brest harbor, western France, on September 21, 2004, shows the Vepr Russian nuclear submarine of the Project 971 Shchuka-B type, or Akula-class (Shark) by NATO classification , the same type as the Nerpa Russian nuclear submarine. Russia has handed over the nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa to India at a ceremony that followed more than two years of delays, a source in the naval chief of staff told ITAR-TASS today. (AFP/Fred Tanneau)
F
ourteen seamen have died in a fire on a deep submersible, Russia's defence ministry said Tuesday, adding the vessel was currently at a military base in the northern city of Severomorsk.
"On July 1, a fire broke out during biometric measurements on a scientific research deep-sea submersible," the defense ministry said.
Fourteen submariners died as a result of poisoning from the fumes of the fire, a ministry spokeswoman confirmed to AFP.
The fire has been put out, the ministry said, adding an investigation was under way.
The research was conducted to study areas near the seabed and the seabed itself of the ocean in the interests of the Russian naval fleet, the ministry said.
The tragedy has echoes -- albeit on a smaller scale -- of the sinking of the Kursk submarine in August 2000 that claimed the lives of 118 personnel.
