Beijing: The loss of 70 top-class People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sailors and officers in China's worst-ever known military disaster has come at a critical time when the government and the armed forces are fighting another decisive battle against the "catastrophic" Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic outbreak, analysts have said.

"This disaster has occurred at a time when the whole Chinese nation, including the PLA, is concentrating on combating the outbreak of SARS," a defence analyst said while commenting on the accident involving a Chinese Ming-class diesel-electric submarine, which was made public on May 2 night.

"It is certainly one of the worst Naval accidents in China's history that we know of," the military analyst said, while pointing out that it is rather unusual for the Chinese government to report publicly on such accidents, especially when the country is passing through a difficult phase in combating SARS epidemic that has claimed over 180 lives and infected over 3,000 others.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), on May 2 described the outbreak in China as a "catastrophe" and called for a "people's war" against the killer epidemic.

Sources also pointed out that the fatal accident has occurred at a time when the Chinese Navy was attempting to draw lessons from similar accidents such as the loss of Russia's nuclear submarine 'Kursk' in 2000, which killed all 118 sailors on board.

While details of the accident are not yet known, the state-run Xinhua news agency, which released a sketchy report of the disaster said it was caused by "mechanical problems".

It is not known when the accident took place, but China has salvaged the vessel recovered from Eastern Chinese territorial waters East of Nechangshan and towed it back to an unknown port.

The submarine, identified as '361' belonged to one of the six Ming-class submarines the PLAN had in it's East sea fleet based in Zhoushan, defence sources said.

The '361' submarine, one of about 90 in the PLAN's fleet, was engaged in a military training exercise at the time of the accident. Nechangshan is an area in the Yellow Sea between China and North Korea, sources said.

Ming-class submarines usually carry a crew of up to 57, including 10 officers. However, the ill-fated Chinese sub had a crew of 70, the Xinhua report said.

In a condolence message to the families of the victims, CMC chairman and former Chinese President Jiang Zemin expressed sorrow over the "big loss" and described the crew as "the good children of the People and loyal defenders of the motherland and their heroism and contributions will not be forgotten by the people of the country".

The type 035 (Ming class) is a remodelled Rome O-class submarine built with Russian Korean war vintage technology – which itself is based on the German type-21 U-boat of 1944, according to 'China Defence Today', an unofficial website of Chinese military affairs.

As part of China's plans for modernisation, China has reportedly ordered eight kilo-class submarines from Russia.

PTI