RUSSIA'S defence minister yesterday ordered a temporary halt to towing decommissioned nuclear submarines to scrapyards after a mothballed submarine sank, killing nine of the sailors on board.

Nine of the crew of an aged Russian nuclear submarine which sunk while being towed to a scrapyard in a gale in the Barents Sea died today.

A Russian nuclear-powered K-159 submarine sank in a fierce late summer storm in the Barents Sea today, killing at least two of the 10-member crew, the Defence Ministry said. No weapons were aboard the sub.