Up to 55 Chinese sailors are feared dead after a nuclear submarine was “caught in a trap intended to snare British and US vessels in the Yellow Sea”, it has been reported.
According to the Mail Online, 22 officers were among those reported to have died in China’s Yellow Sea – including the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.
China denies the incident happened.
The reported trap was intended to “ensnare British sub-surface vessels” operating off the coast off China’s Shandong Province.
The report states: “According to a secret UK report the seamen died following a catastrophic failure of the submarine’s oxygen systems which poisoned the crew.
“The captain of the Chinese PLA Navy submarine ‘093-417’ is understood to be among the deceased, as were 21 other officers.”
The UK report also read: “Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.
“Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. 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.”
The Royal Navy “declined to comment or offer guidance” to the Mail Online.
One Naval expert told the publication: “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.”
