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More bodies recovered from Kursk

Investigators working round the clock to remove all dead

Investigators finally began the task of removing bodies from the wreck of the raised Russian submarine Kursk in dry dock yesterday.

Wearing gas masks to protect themselves from toxic gases that have built up since the submarine sank in the Barents Sea after two explosions 14 months ago, forensic experts searched through three sections of the hull in the dry dock at Roslyakovo, near the Arctic port of Murmansk.

They removed three bodies from the rear "ninth" section of the submarine and more bodies could be seen, said the prosecutor general, Vladimir Ustinov, who is leading the inquiry.

"We have to find the identities of the dead," he said on Russian television. "We are now working around the clock, starting from 4 o' clock this morning. Work is going on in shifts through the night and will continue until we are sure there are no bodies left on the submarine."

He said that the bodies found so far could be identified by sight, meaning that they were not badly damaged.

"We believed the bodies would be badly disfigured after more than a year under water," he said.

Hours earlier the hull of the Kursk had finally been drained of sea water in the dry dock at Roslyakovo.

The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea 85 miles north-east of Murmansk in August last year. Letters found on the bodies of 12 of the submariners who were recovered last year showed that 23 out of the 118 crew had scrambled to the ninth section after two mysterious explosions sank the submarine. No bodies were found in the seventh or eighth sections.

The damaged hull was lifted from the bottom of the sea this month in a salvage operation costing £45.4m.

Enviromentalists have warned of the dangers of removing the 22 Granit cruise missiles from the submarine. Navy officials said that they would be able to remove the weapons without cutting the hull.

Water samples taken from inside the reactor's compartment confirm that there has been no radiation leak, a navy spokesman, Captain Igor Dygalo, said. The navy commander, Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, said that experts would enter the reactor compartment later to check its condition and make sure that it was properly heated, to keep it from freezing.

The next task would be to remove the missiles. Adm Kuroyedov said that the silos containing the missiles apparently had not been damaged, allowing navy experts to remove the weapons according to normal procedure.

Navy officials had previously said that it might be necessary to cut the missiles out of the Kursk's hull along with the silos if there was any damage.

The Russian navy has dismissed claims that the missiles could fire by themselves, saying that the lack of electric power on board makes that impossible.

Few expect the investigation to solve the mystery of why the Kursk sank. The bow of the submarine, where the explosions took place, will not be raised until next year.

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