The Chinese navy has lost 55 sailors after one of its nuclear-powered submarine was caught in a trap intended for American and British vessels, leaked intelligence reports disclose.
China has denied the loss of the submarine in the Yellow Sea, as has Taiwan, the island state claimed by Beijing.
Leaked British intelligence reported that China’s PLA Navy submarine “093-417” suffered a catastrophic failure, poisoning the crew on August 21.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the report in the Daily Mail. The intelligence was held at high classification and is likely to result in a leak inquiry.
The vessel was said to have run out of oxygen near Shandong province, north of Shanghai, after it was caught in seabed defences installed by its own forces.
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The captain of the Shang-class submarine was among the 22 officers believed to have died. The British report, based on defence intelligence seen by the newspaper, said: “Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia [lack of oxygen] due to a system fault on the submarine.
“The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese navy to trap US and allied submarines. This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The on-board oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.”
Rumours first began swirling on social media about an incident involving a Shang-class submarine last month but these were denied by Beijing.
China has six Type 093 attack submarines, which have a displacement of 6,096 tonnes and are armed with 553mm torpedoes. The nuclear-powered submarines, designed to be quieter than previous models, entered service in the past 15 years.