Salvage divers at work on Kursk

By Marcus Warren in Moscow

12:01AM BST 23 Jul 2001

DIVERS started work on the hull of the Kursk at the weekend as robots made way for humans in the operation to raise the wrecked Russian nuclear submarine.

The divers began marking sections for drilling holes for the cables that will lift the vessel to the surface, and inspected the bow section which will be cut off and left on the sea bed.

Two thirds of the divers on the support vessel Mayo are British, but it was unclear which countries those at work over the weekend were from. The Russian navy insists that only Russians will have access to sensitive parts of the submarine.

The Mayo arrived at the site in the Barents Sea a week ago but until the weekend, inspections of the Kursk's hull had been carried out only by remote-controlled robots.

The Kursk went down with all 118 crew during war games last August in a disaster still unexplained but blamed by many on a leak of torpedo fuel.

Ten young people aged 10 to 19 who lost their fathers aboard the Kursk are in Scotland on a week's sightseeing visit paid for by Royal Navy families and members of the public who raised thousands of pounds.

They arrived in Glasgow on Saturday and yesterday were given a demonstration by the Ministry of Defence police dog team at Faslane naval base.

Anna Belogoun, 19, the eldest in the party, said: "I am very glad to be here and hope that Scotland will be a good opportunity to meet new people and learn [about a] new culture. I understand that British people are very nice."