Fire breaks out on Russian nuclear submarine

Firefighters extinguished a major fire on a docked nuclear submarine yesterday as some crew members remained inside. No radiation leak was reported and the submarine's nuclear-tipped missiles were not on board.

Military prosecutors are investigating whether safety regulations were breached. The President, Dmitry Medvedev, summoned top cabinet officials to report to him and demanded punishment for anyone found responsible.

The fire broke out on Thursday at a shipyard outside the north-western city of Murmansk where the Yekaterinburg was in dry-dock. Seven crew members were taken to hospital after inhaling carbon monoxide fumes.

An unspecified number of crew were inside the submarine when the fire broke out, a spokesman from the defence ministry said.

AP