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Hundreds Pay Respects To 11 Kursk Dead
St Petersburg (AFP) Nov 17, 2001 Hundreds of people filed past the coffins Saturday of 11 Russian seamen killed when the nuclear submarine Kursk, the former pride of the Russian fleet, sank in mysterious circumstances last year. As the snow fell, about 1,000 tearful mourners attended the funeral service at Saint Petersburg's historic Peter the Great Naval School. The 11 bodies were among those retrieved from the wreck of the nuclear-powered vessel since it was raised and towed to dry-dock near the Russian Arctic city of Murmansk last month. A further 19 bodies are to be buried in St Petersburg at a later date. So far, 55 bodies have been recovered from the Kursk, of which 45 have been identified. The Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea with the loss of all 118 on board after a series of unexplained explosions on August 12 last year. The 11 bodies were laid to rest in the Serafimovskoye cemetery where they joined those of two sailors who were buried after they were recovered from the sunken submarine in November last year. "The story of the Kursk will not be over until all the crew members are buried," said Igor Kurdin, the chairman of the Saint Petersburg ex-submariners club. Most of the hull is in dry dock after being refloated in a major international salvage operation completed in October. Although its sinking remains a mystery, investigators examining the wreck have uncovered a key recording device that they hope will reveal what happened on August 12 last year.
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