20 killed in gas leak aboard Russian sub

In Russia’s worst naval accident in nearly a decade, at least 20 people, including three sailors, were killed and 21 injured in a gas leakage during the trial of a brand-new nuclear-powered Nerpa submarine that was to be leased to India later this year.

“Autopsy results confirm that the people died as a result of inhaling freon gas released when the fire-extinguishing system was activated in one of the submarine’s compartments” last night, a spokesman for the federal probe panel said.

Freon is a cooling agent used in automatic fire-extinguishing systems. Due to accidental activation, the compartment was “hermetically” sealed and technicians inside it were suffocated, while in the usual condition the crew uses individual gas masks, Vesti channel reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a high-level probe into the accident aboard ‘K-152 Nerpa’, the worst since the 2000 Kursk nuclear submarine mishap.

Naval spokesman Capt Igor Dygalo said there was no radiation leak. The sub has since returned to the base from the Pacific Ocean, with its reactor working in the normal mode.

There were 208 people — 81 of them servicemen — on board the vessel at the time of the accident.