45 bodies removed from Kursk wreckage

Investigators examining the wreckage of the Kursk have now removed the bodies of 45 sailors.

Investigators examining the wreckage of the Kursk have now removed the bodies of 45 sailors.

The number retrieved is higher than the Russian Navy's initial forecast of between 30-40 sailors.

In addition, 12 bodies were retrieved by divers who examined the Kursk on the bottom of the Barents Sea last year.

The prosecutor's office would not say whether any more bodies were expected to be found. Russian news reports say two Granit cruise missiles have also been removed from the vessel.

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The cause of the disaster, which killed the Kursk's entire crew of 118, is not known but officials are focusing on versions including a collision with an old mine, a foreign vessel or a faulty torpedo launch.

Russia's state prosecutor, who is leading the investigative team, said sailors aboard the Kursk could not have been at fault for the explosions.

Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said on state-run RTR television that ballistics experts were examining the Kursk to see whether it could have come in contact with an outside object.

"There's a certain rubbed-off portion" on the body of the Kursk, General Ustinov said, apparently referring to the theory that the Kursk was hit by a foreign submarine.

Most foreign experts believe a malfunction in one of the Kursk's torpedoes caused the explosions. General Ustinov reiterated that Russian military experts insist the Kursk's torpedoes were flawless.

PA