55 sailors dead as Chinese submarine gets stuck

As many as 55 Chinese sailors are feared dead when their nuclear submarine became entangled in a trap designed for foreign vessels in the Yellow Sea.

According to a confidential UK intelligence report, the submarine encountered a "chain and anchor" trap. The submariners died due to a catastrophic malfunction in the submarine's oxygen systems, resulting in the poisoning of the entire crew.

Among the deceased are the captain of the Chinese PLA Navy submarine '093-417' and 21 other officers.

China has officially denied the occurrence of the incident. It also reportedly declined international assistance for the stranded submarine, which had been in service for less than 15 years.

The UK report details the fatal mission: "On August 21st, an onboard accident occurred during a mission in the Yellow Sea at 08:12 local time, resulting in the loss of 55 crew members, including 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, and 17 sailors. Among the deceased was Captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.

"It is believed that their deaths were caused by hypoxia resulting from a system failure on the submarine. The submarine collided with a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap US and allied submarines, leading to system failures that took six hours to repair and bring the vessel to the surface. The onboard oxygen system malfunctioned catastrophically."_India Today