`Intact' hatch on `Kursk' can be opened

Although serious differences have emerged between Russian and Norwegian rescue teams, efforts to enter the submarine Kursk are continuing.

Norwegian divers, with Russian help, have begun studying the mechanisms of the escape hatch on one of the Kursk's sister ships in preparation for a further rescue effort.

Reporters at the northern Russian port of Murmansk were receiving pessimistic information, filtered through official Russian sources, that the Kursk's escape hatch was so damaged it could not be opened.

Norwegian rescuers however sent unfiltered reports back to Oslo that the escape hatch was "intact", and that a pocket of air existed behind it.

"We have not drawn the conclusion the hatch is so damaged that it cannot be opened, John Espen Lien, spokesman for the Norwegian armed forces, told the Reuters news agency in Oslo after Norwegian divers inspected the crippled Kursk.

"The hatch is not destroyed and is in a fair condition . . . We think it should be possible to open it with a British or a Russian rescue capsule," he said.

Russia's senior representative, vice premier Ilya Klebanov had earlier said the hatch could not be opened.

Although couching his views in diplomatic language Rear Admiral Einar Skorgen of Norway's Royal Navy, who is co-ordinating the Norwegian and British rescuers, indicated that there were differences of opinion between Western and Russian teams.

He claimed that time had been wasted and that he had had to go to the commander of the Russian Northern Fleet, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, on a number of occasions to keep the operation moving at a satisfactory pace.

Admiral Skorgen told Norwegian state radio that the operation was progressing reasonably well considering the bureaucracy involved. Difficulties which had arisen stemmed, he said, from "cultural differences".

The teams of Norwegian divers and British sailors arrived at the scene early yesterday morning. Initial information supplied through Russian television to journalists at Murmansk, indicated that serious damage to the hatch meant that no rescue operation could be mounted.

It was also stated that a sailor was trapped in a flooded compartment immediately behind the hatch. These claims were contradicted by Norwegian sources, leading to speculation that the Russians, realising that there was virtually no chance of rescuing any sailors, wanted to keep forces from Norway and Britain, both NATO members, away from the craft.

The LR5 mini-submarine, leased to the British Royal Navy, was standing by and awaiting permission from the Russian authorities to make a rescue attempt.

In Moscow, President Putin, who returned from the Black Sea resorts of Sochi and Yalta, appeared on state television and looking stern-faced gave a statement in which he said: "With sorrow in our hearts and, I do not exaggerate, tears in our eyes, we are following all that is happening in the Barents Sea . . . The sailors are doing everything they can to save their comrades."

Many Russians, however, have expressed anger at Mr Putin's attitude in remaining at the resorts while the crisis unfolded.