Murmansk - Russian investigators recovered the first three bodies yesterday from the Kursk nuclear submarine since hoisting the wreck from the bottom of the Barents Sea earlier this month.
Russia's Prosecutor, Gen Vladimir Ustinov, said that investigators, wearing oxygen masks and cloaked in heavy suits protecting them from poisonous gases and possible radiation, crawled into the Kursk for the first time on Wednesday night after draining the 20,000-tonne vessel of water.
The salvage team found the rear three sections of the craft devastated with rubble and sharp pieces of twisted metal, making progress through the hull dangerous and slow.
But the three bodies were recovered in good condition and quickly delivered to hospital in the navy port of Severomorsk for identification.