Fishing group suspects trawler’s nets were dragged by Russian submarine

A Russian submarine close to the coast of Britain may have dragged a trawler violently backwards after snagging in its nets, a fishermen’s organisation said.

The Karen was towed at 10 knots during the incident 18 miles from Ardglass on the south east coast of Northern Ireland. The vessel was badly damaged but the crew escaped unharmed.

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said he could not comment on Royal Navy submarine movements but Dick James, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Fish Producers’ Organisation, said Navy procedures meant its staff were supposed to stop and identify themselves following such an incident.

He said: “It is possible that it was a Russian submarine.

“You cannot always prevent it but if an incident like this did happen the (Royal Navy) protocols said that the submarine would immediately surface to check on the health and welfare of the people involved and this one did not.

“Paul Murphy, the skipper, said that he sat for five to 10 minutes catching his breath to see if the submarine would surface.

“It was a submarine, it had to be, it could not have been anything else.”