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Mumbai: Battling difficult conditions, rescuers from Indian Navy today extricated disfigured bodies of three of its personnel from submarine INS Sindhurakshak, more than two days after it exploded and burst into flames, with little hope of finding any survivors.
"The three bodies recovered are severely disfigured and not identifiable due to severe burns," a Navy press release said.
The bodies have been shifted to naval hospital INS Ashwini for DNA sampling for facilitating identification, Defence spokesman Narendra Vispute said.
"The state of the bodies and condition within the submarine leads to firm conclusion that finding any surviving personnel within the submarine is unlikely," the release said.
Boiling water inside the warship, which sank, had thwarted all attempts by rescuers at entering the ill-fated Russia-made vessel earlier.
"Access to the inner compartments of the submarine was almost impossible due to jammed doors, distorted ladders, oily and muddy water inside the submerged submarine resulting in total darkness and nil visibility even with high powered under water lamps," the release said.
The distorted and twisted metal within very restricted space due to extensive internal damage caused by the explosion further worsened conditions for the divers which resulted in a very slow and laboured progress, it said.
Only one diver could work at a time to clear the path to gain access, it said, adding it was only after 36 hours of continuous diving effort that Navy divers could finally reach the second compartment behind the conning tower in the early hours today.
