Damaged escape hatch seals worst fears of sub's rescuers

The rear escape hatch on the Russian submarine Kursk is so badly damaged that it would be impossible for British rescuers to open it, underwater cameras reveal.

A team of Norwegian scuba divers were on their way to the wreck last night to get a clearer picture and to decide what to do next.

"An underwater camera inspected the hatch area and confirmed the reports of Russian rescuers who spent so much time failing to dock because the hatch area is damaged," said a Russian television report from the Barents Sea, where the Kursk sank after two explosions 10 days ago.

The Norwegians are acting as pathfinders for the LR5, a 21-tonne British rescue submarine that is thought to have the best chance of saving any survivors.

But after days of uncertainty and changing stories, it was generally accepted yesterday that the joint British and Norwegian mission was less a rescue operation and more an attempt to recover the dead.

The death knell for the Kursk's 118 crew was sounded in a televised statement by the head of the Northern Fleet's general staff, Mikhail Motsak, who admitted there was no hope of finding anyone alive.

Scraps of information from those who survived the explosions enabled the Navy to piece together the horrifying hours and days that followed inside the submarine.

"Most likely the whole of the front section of the submarine has been flooded and the staff in those sections died in the first minutes of the accident," said Motsak.

"After the accident, we heard the tapping of submarine personnel following the rules of communication with a sunken vessel.

"Analysis of the tapping allows us to conclude that the crew in the compartments in the stern were telling us that water was filtering into their sections and they wanted us to provide air supply.

"We have crossed the critical survival threshold we set for the crew."

"Hard as it is to say this, we will most likely have to say that our worst expectations have come true."

The Norwegian seismic institute Norsar recorded two explosions about the time the Kursk sank, one registering 3.5 on the Richter scale - equivalent to a small earthquake.

- REUTERS

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