India l Soviet submarine exploded sold to India in 1997

The explosion occurred during the early hours of Wednesday 14 in the INS Sindhurakshak an Indian military submarine that runs diesel and electric propulsion, not only leaves dead and injured. It is also a serious setback for the country's navy, which seeks to modernize its obsolete equipment. The ship was docked at a naval shipyard in Mumbai (West Coast), with 18 sailors on board, according to an army spokesman said. " It is the greatest tragedy of recent times. I feel sorry for the sailors who lost their lives in the service of the country, "said Arackaparambil Kurien Antony , the defense minister, at a press conference in New Delhi. He did not specify the number of victims. "The cause of the explosion," said Narendra Kumar Vispute , an army spokesman, before adding that rescue teams were still searching for 18 crew members. "There were two or three explosions and the sky lit up briefly, "he told AFP Dharmendra Jaiswal, guard the shipyard. The submarine, which was completely collapse, was sold by Russia in 1997 and lacked the more modern material with existing ships, as an emergency exit, said AFP wing defense expert Rahul Bedi. The army opened an investigation into the causes of the accident. A senior Navy alluded to a malfunction in the propulsion system of the ship as one of the main hypotheses.Although still not rule out a terrorist act. The tragedy came at a bad time because a few days ago the government had presented with many bubbles the first aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines manufactured in India . The country started a while back a program to modernize its dilapidated military equipment, dating from the time of the Soviet Union.