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.

The raising of the Kursk nuclear submarine has been completed. A Dutch consortium says it has taken more than 12 hours to lift the vessel to the surface of the Barents Sea.