Small Explosion on Russian Submarine

[Crennis]

The BBC website is reporting that there has been a small explosion onboard a Russian submarine according to a russian news agency.

[Crennis]

The breaking news has now been expanded to include:

Submarine Explosion

"Blast damages Russian submarine  
 
An explosion has damaged a Russian naval submarine undergoing repairs in the Arctic, but there are no reports of any casualties, Russian media say.
Officials have not specified whether the submarine is nuclear-powered.

The background radiation level is normal in Severodvinsk, where the incident took place on Thursday, Interfax news agency reports.

The explosion damaged more than 20sq m (215sq ft) of the submarine's hull, Ekho Moskvy radio reports."

[Nathan]

Thanks heavens that the submarine had no live ammunition on it or even any warheads!  :-o
Can anyone specify what caused the explosion? Human error perhaps?

[Kier Shackleton Gigeroff]

What I want to know is how an explosion happened on a vessel in drydock? This happening on a nuclear submarine sounds pretty serious.
I guess whoever was doing the repairs caused more problems than they solved!

Kier

[Andrew Lester]

dartmouth wrote:
What I want to know is how an explosion happened on a vessel in drydock?

Kier

There are any number of ways this could happen, such as welding, use of a cutting torch, compressed air, etc.

[Kier Shackleton Gigeroff]

Hmmm... I see.
Thanks.

Kier