Divers praised over Kursk body search

Russian naval divers, who took part in the recovery of bodies from the sunken nuclear submarine the Kursk, have arrived in St Petersburg for debriefing and medical checks.

The head of the specialist facility which will examine them, Vice-Admiral Yuri Sukhachev, praised the work of the team.

He said experience gained from their high-risk operation would help Russia create a single naval rescue emergencies centre.

Only twelve of the one-hundred-and-eighteen crew of the Kursk were recovered from the bed of the Barents Sea, where the submarine sank in August. The Russian divers spent eighteen days working alongside underwater rescue experts from Norway.

Hopes of finding more bodies have been abandoned.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service