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70 suffocated on sub - report
05/05/2003 08:57 - (SA)
Hong Kong - The 70 Chinese naval officers and sailors killed in a submarine accident off the coast of northeast China appear to have suffocated, a newspaper has reported.
The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po daily cited investigators as saying there were no traces of an explosion in submarine No 361 nor any sign of flooding.
It said all the crew were still at their posts when found by rescuers.
The mysterious accident involving the conventional Ming-class submarine took place after it developed mechanical problems during a training exercise in the Bohai Sea near eastern Shandong province.
Analysts described it as the first reported major submarine accident since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.
It was not clear when the accident happened, although military chief Jiang Zemin sent messages of condolence dated May 2 to family of the dead officers and seamen.
- AFX
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