Fifty-five Chinese sailors are thought to have died after the submarine they were in was caught in a Chinese defence trap, a leaked report claims.
According to the report, it’s believed the sinking took place in waters off China's Shandong Province.
Rumours about an incident involving a submarine sinking in China circulated online last month but were denied by Beijing and branded 'completely false'.
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The ‘chain and anchor’ trap is intended to snare vessels belonging to ‘US and allied’ forces - such as the UK - as they enter waters near the country.
However, the same trap led to a ‘catastrophic failure' which killed all those on board China’s own PLA Navy submarine ‘093-417’ after it became stuck back in August, the leaked report claims.
China has denied that the incident happened while Beijing reportedly refused to request aid for the trapped sub.
A UK report into the supposedly fatal mission seen by the Daily Mail reads: "Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.
"Incident happened at 08.12 local [time] 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.
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"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."
As yet there is no independent confirmation of the suspected incident in the public domain in China.
The Royal Navy has declined to comment on the report.
China has six Type 093 attack submarines, which are armed with 553mm torpedoes.
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The nuclear subs are designed to be quieter than previous models and entered service within the last 15 years.
One British submariner told the Daily Mail it is ‘plausible’ the incident happened and that China would not have asked for ‘international support for obvious reasons’.
The expert added: “If they were trapped on the net system and the submarine's batteries were running flat (plausible) then eventually the air purifiers and air treatment systems could have failed.
“Which would have reverted to secondary systems and subsequently and plausibly failed to maintain the air. Which led to asphyxia or poisoning.
“We have kit which absorbs co2 and generates oxygen in such a situation. It is probable that other nations do not have this kind of tech.”
Topics: World News
Claire Reid