Russia races to free trapped mini-sub

Russia raced yesterday to haul up a mini-submarine stuck 190 metres underwater near its Pacific coast, before the seven sailors on board run out of air.

Britain and the United States flew unmanned undersea rescue vehicles to the far east Kamchatka peninsula to help with the accident, which has revived grim memories of a botched attempt to save sinking Russian nuclear submarine Kursk five years ago.

The AS-28 mini-submarine, itself a rescue vessel, has been stranded since Thursday, when its propeller got tangled up in wires from the antenna of a military underwater monitoring device, during military exercises.

The first attempt early yesterday to drag the mini-sub to shallow waters failed.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted naval spokesman Igor Dygalo as saying a new attempt had started to try and pull up the AS-28, together with antenna, cable and two heavy anchors holding it.

"Two rescue ships caught the whole thing in a loop and have started pulling them up," Dygalo said. "The vessel will be raised to a depth of 30-50 metres."

It was not clear how long the operation might last. There have also been conflicting reports about whether the rescuers want to take the AS-28 to the surface, or evacuate the crew when the submersible rises to the safe depth of 100 metres.

At Russia's request, a British Scorpio and three US Super Scorpio underwater rescue vehicles were airlifted to Kamchatka earlier yesterday, loaded on ships and sent to join the operation.

Interfax news agency quoted Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, as saying that they would only get there by 2000 GMT.

The coastal waters off Russia's far east have highly sensitive installations and there were suggestions the military was not keen to have foreign navies getting so close to its secrets.

At home, the AS-28 incident has become a reminder of the Kursk disaster five years ago and which led to fierce criticism of President Vladimir Putin. All 118 men on board the Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea, died after a botched rescue.

So far Putin has remained silent on the latest accident. But in a sign of growing Kremlin concern, Putin yesterday dispatched Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to Kamchatka to take personal charge of the rescue operation.