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Submarine accident may delay delivery to India

Vladimir Radyuhin

The vessel was expected to join the Indian Navy as INS Chakra in 2009

MOSCOW: Twenty people were killed and 22 hurt in an accident on a new Russian nuclear submarine to be leased to India.

The accident occurred when a fire-fighting system switched on for unknown reasons aboard the Akula-class Nerpa attack submarine during underwater sea trials in the Sea of Japan on Saturday night.

Russian Navy Commander Vladimir Vysotsky said neither the submarine nor its reactor had sustained any damage and the vessel returned to base in Vladivostok, in the Russian far-east, under its own power.

The 12,000-tonne submarine had been moved from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard to Vladivostok for trials last month and was expected to join the Indian Navy under the designation INS Chakra in the second half of 2009. It has been reportedly leased by India for 10 years at the cost of $650 million.

Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said that “accidental activation of the ship’s fire extinguishing system” had occurred in two sections near the bow.

A total of 208 people were on board at the time, most of them technicians from the shipyard.

Gas leak

A spokesman for Russia’s top investigation committee said the casualties had been caused by deadly Freon gas used in the submarine fire safety system to smother massive fires on board.

The crew could not leave the sealed compartments, but it was not immediately clear why they did not use emergency air breathing apparatus provided to all crewmen.

It is Russia’s worst submarine accident after the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine. The accident may delay the delivery of the submarine to the Indian Navy as the Russian naval command has ordered suspension of the ship’s trials.

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