Dozens of Chinese seamen are presumed dead after their nuclear submarine apparently became trapped in the Yellow Sea.
A UK report seen by MailOnline suggested the vessel got stuck in a trap intended to capture British sub-surface ships.
It is thought the captain of the submarine was killed alongside 21 other officers after its oxygen system failed.
The report reads: ‘Intelligence reports that on August 21 there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.
‘Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.
‘Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap US and allied submarines.
‘This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.’
55 sailors feared dead after nuclear submarine ‘gets stuck in trap’
You must be logged in to post a comment.