By Andrei Shukshin
MOSCOW (Reuters)
- Russian divers recovered a fourth body from the wreck of the
Kursk submarine on Thursday but were forced to halt the operation
to find the remains of other crew members because of worsening
weather.
Itar-Tass
news agency quoted Vyacheslav Popov, the commander of the Northern
Fleet to which the Kursk belonged, as saying the body had been
found when the divers inspected the eighth and ninth compartments
of the nuclear-powered vessel.
The Kursk
plunged to the floor of the Barents Sea on August 12, killing
all 118 crew, in Russia's worst naval disaster.
Divers recovered
the first three corpses from the compartments on Wednesday. The
stern part of the craft suffered least from a series of mysterious
explosions which plunged the Kursk to the seabed.
Seven sailors
were believed to be posted in the eighth compartment and three
in the ninth at the time of the blasts.
Popov said
the divers had to be brought to the surface soon after midnight
because of a gathering storm in this area of the Arctic.
He said increased
water movement inside the submarine threatened their lives.
At the same
time, a team of Norwegian divers who remained outside the Kursk
pressed on with efforts to cut a hole into the seventh compartment
which the Russians could not access from within because a corridor
leading to it was too narrow.
Popov said
the Norwegians had completed some 10 percent of the work on a
man-sized hole in the outer ``soft'' hull but might also soon
be forced to withdraw because of the weather.
Tass said
the weather forecast for the next three days did not favor the
divers with storms expected to rage above safety limits.
Despite the
difficult operating environment, the lifting of the first bodies
gave a welcome boost to the operation which many said should be
canceled because of huge risks run by the divers going inside
the shattered vessel.
Relatives
of the crew, who wrangled a promise to recover the bodies from
President Vladimir Putin during an emotional meeting in the aftermath
of the disaster, have called for the government to call off the
salvage attempt.
But Putin,
stung by harsh public criticism of his lack of leadership during
the crisis, insisted it go ahead as planned.
The operation
is being conducted by the Norwegian arm of U.S. oil services firm
Halliburton which sent its offshore platform, Regalia, to the
disaster site. Its contract stipulates that only Russian divers
go inside the submarine.
Russian navy
commanders have said the operation could be stopped at any minute
if divers' lives were at risk.
The divers
must cut a total of seven holes to reach all parts of the craft
where crew remains might be found.
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