Three bodies of sailors found in sunken submarine

At least three bodies of sailors who were trapped inside INS Sindhurakshak submarine, which exploded, caught fire and sank here early Wednesday, were recovered Friday by naval diving teams. The fate of 15 more sailors was still uncertain as rescue efforts continued since the past 36 hours, an official said requesting anonymity. The identity of the bodies, or their condition, is still not known.

The defence ministry late Thursday released the names of the three officers and 15 sailors who were aboard the ill-fated submarine INS Sindhurakshak. The officers are three Lt.Commanders - Nikhilesh Pal, Alok Kumar and R. Venkitaraj.

The sailor crew members are: Sanjeev Kumar, K.C. Upadhyay, Timothy Sinha (all POUW-I), Kewal Singh (LSUC-I), Sunil Kumar (SEA I UW-III), Dasari Prasad (Mech-R 2), Liju Lawrence, LEMP, Rajesh Tootika (LME), Amit K. Singh (STD-I), Atul Sharma and Vikas E. (both SEA-I), Naruttam Deuri (ME-I), Malay Haldar (EMR-II), Vishnu V. (RO-II) and Seetaram Badapalli (LS RP-I).

Eight of these 15 personnel, including two officers, were married. The divers' efforts are seriously hampered by poor visibility conditions inside the submarine which is filled with water, extremely restricted spaces and displacement of most of the equipment from their original locations. The heat of the explosion had melted parts of the internal hull deforming the submarine hatches, preventing access to different compartments.

Heavy duty pumps have been deployed to pump out the seawater from the sunken submarine. The cause of the explosions and a raging fire - to which the submarine succumbed within six hours and sank - is still not clear nearly three days after the incident.