MOSCOW, July 1: The final report into Russia’s August 2000 Kursk submarine disaster said on Monday a torpedo fuel leak caused the massive explosion which sank the nuclear-powered vessel with the loss of all 118 crew.

Ilya Klebanov, the senior government minister who headed the commission which compiled the report, said investigators had made their findings after key elements from the torpedo bay were raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea last month.

“A thermal explosion of components of the class 298A PV torpedo caused the disaster,” Klebanov told Interfax news agency. “It happened as a result of a leak of hydrogen peroxide and the ignition of materials in the torpedo tube.”

Klebanov said the Kursk had been destroyed after a second explosion set off parts of the armaments stored in the first compartment of the Kursk, then Russia’s most modern submarine.

“All members of the government commission agreed with these conclusions,” said Klebanov, who is trade, science and technology minister.

He added the conclusions would be handed to the prosecutor general, who is conducting a separate investigation.—Reuters