Moscow: Twenty people died and more than 20 were injured in an accident aboard a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the navy said on Sunday, in the worst submarine disaster since the Kursk sank eight years ago.
A Russian naval spokesman said 208 people were on board the submarine when an accident involving the activation of a fire extinguishing system occurred during sea trials. He said the nuclear reactor was intact and radiation levels were normal.
The death toll makes it the worst mishap for the accident-prone Russian navy since the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea in 2000 with the loss of all 118 sailors. Russian news agencies quoted the navy spokesman, Captain Igor Dygalo, as saying 20 people had died in the accident in the Pacific Ocean during routine testing when the fire extinguishing systems went off by accident.
He had earlier put the death toll at "at least 20". Most of those killed were from the Amur Shipbuilding Enterprise which built the ship, Russian media quoted the shipbuilder as saying. Dygalo told Reuters later that at about 1030 Moscow time (0730 GMT) the submarine had returned to the naval base of Bolshoi Kamen in the Pacific.
"It returned under its own steam, under escort by the Sayany rescue vessel. It is being moored at the anchorage," Dygalo said. "The radiation levels on the ship are normal." Dygalo did not give the name or class of the submarine or specify where it was located.
He said a Russian destroyer had brought the injured to Vladivostok, the main city on Russia's Pacific coast and headquarters of the Pacific Fleet. President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Defence Ministry to carry out a full inquiry into the causes of the accident, the Kremlin press service said.
Former Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who had been president for just a few months at the time of the Kursk disaster, was criticised at home for his slow reaction to that incident. Russia's navy has suffered a string of fatal accidents, despite sharp increases in funding and Kremlin attempts to use its largely Soviet-era fleet to project an image of strength abroad and at home.
Russia's navy said the accident occurred in the Sea of Japan on Saturday while the submarine was having its final trials by a group of navy sailors and staff from the construction company. The submarine was supposed to enter full service with the navy at the end of this year. Russian news agencies said chemicals used by the submarine's fire extinguishing system were released by error, although it was unclear why.
A Russian anti-submarine destroyer, the Admiral Tributs, evacuated the injured from the submarine and brought them to Vladivostok for treatment. "The injured have been brought to the coast where they are receiving qualified medical assistance in the naval hospital," Dygalo said.
Russian media quoted naval sources as saying the accident occurred aboard the Nerpa, a Project 971 Shchuka-B attack submarine, known inside NATO as an Akula-class submarine. The Nerpa embarked on trials on the open seas late last month, according to local media. Construction of the Nerpa was started in 1991 but funding dried up in the chaos of the 1990s, media reports said.
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