Russian sub crew families lash out at officials

12:30 PM

SEVEROMORSK - A top Russian government official has faced a wave of fury and despair from anxious relatives of the 118 crew of the stricken submarine the Kursk.

Local television station Murman showed pictures from a meeting in a closed naval town Yesterday between Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and wives and mothers of the crew on the Kursk.

He did not get far in his speech before the angry crowd heckled him.

"Who is to blame for all this," one woman shouted at the meeting in Vidyayevo, a town closed to outsiders.

Another was so overcome with emotion she passed out.

A third woman, tears streaming down her face, said she had heard enough excuses for inaction from officials. People in the audience comforted each other as Klebanov tried to speak.

The television station said its camera crew was told to leave the meeting as the anger increased.

Klebanov is leading a government inquiry to find out what happened to the Kursk. He said on Thursday the submarine had been hit been hit from the outside by some large object. Western experts have said there were explosions inside the vessel.

At sea, teams of rescue workers have been toiling round the clock to reach any survivors in the stricken submarine.

Rescue vessels have managed to dock with the submarine but could not into the vessel. Russia's RTR television said the hull of the submarine was also damaged, hampering rescue efforts.

Hopes are now focussing on a British mini-submarine, the LR5, being shipped to the accident site. It has never carried out a real rescue before but could take up 16 people on board.

Norway has also sent a team of 12 to 15 deep sea divers to assist the British mission.

In Severomorsk, the local naval headquarters town along the coast from Vidyayevo, residents expressed a mixture of hope that there may still be a chance for the crew and disbelief that the accident could have happened in the first place.

"No, they are not in touch, but all the same we have hope, we hope. Maybe they are not all still alive, but some should be," said Natalya Sabgarina.

Her thoughts were echoed in the town's newspaper, Severmorskie Vesti. "We hope and we believe," said a banner headline splashed across its front page.

Lieutenant Anoshkin, who works in the medical corps, said he could see why people were becoming less confident.

"I can only assume they are in a bad way at the moment. The oxygen must be low. There is a lot of carbon dioxide and it will be cold," he said.

Local resident Boris Reptan could not believe the accident had happened in the first place.

"Why are there not proper bulkheads separating the sections? Why do they not have individual escape pods? They should carry small oxygen masks to stop this sort of thing. I do not understand it," he said.

- REUTERS

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