Rescuers from Indian Navy on Friday extricated disfigured bodies of three of its personnel from submarine INS Sindhurakshak, more than two days after it exploded and burst into flames. It’s unlikely to find any survivors, the Navy said, the Times of India reports.
"The three bodies recovered are severely disfigured and not identifiable due to severe burns," the Navy said in a statement.
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.
The damages caused by the explosion thwarted to the search and rescue operation at the submerged submarine.
The Navy had yesterday released the names of the three officers and 15 sailors who were inside the 16-year-old Russian-made vessel.
The diesel-electric submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1997 at a cost of around Rs 400 crore and had gone through a Rs 450-crore extensive upgrade in Russia.