Russian sub sailors were running out of oxygen

Russian sailors rescued with British help after three days trapped in a mini-submarine deep in the Pacific revealed today how they struggled with rapidly decreasing water and oxygen supplies while waiting anxiously in the darkness and cold.

The seven men had only six hours of oxygen left when they finally reached the surface, said Commander Ian Riches, the British naval officer who directed the effort to use a remote-controlled Scorpio underwater vehicle to free the submarine from fishing nets.