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| Russia downplays submarine blast | |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| Russia says one of its nuclear submarines has been damaged by a surge in air pressure, downplaying earlier reports of an explosion. | |
| A ballast tank aboard the submarine was damaged in what a navy official described as a minor incident, according to the Interfax news agency. | |
| No casualties were reported and radiation levels at the Arctic port of Severodvinsk are said to be normal. | |
| The incident took place as the submarine was being repaired. | |
| According to the Reuters news agency, the Russian navy usually shuts down reactors and removes nuclear fuel during repairs to its submarines. | |
| "The management of the [dockyard]... considers the accident as minor," Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told the Itar-Tass news agency. | |
| An environmental official in Norway, near the port of Severodvinsk, told Reuters there was no sign of increased radioactivity as a result of the accident. | |
| Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio earlier reported that an explosion had damaged more than 20sq m (215sq ft) of the submarine's hull. | |
| Russia's ageing fleet of nuclear submarine has a history of deadly accidents. | |
| In one of the worst recent incidents, the Kursk submarine broke down and sank to the floor of the Barents Sea, killing all 188 crew aboard it. |