San Juan submarine: 'Explosion' detected in hunt for Argentine vessel
The Argentine navy says an event consistent with an explosion was recorded near where a submarine disappeared last week with 44 crew on board.
An "abnormal, singular, short, violent, non-nuclear event" had been detected in the south Atlantic, a spokesman said.
The information came from an Austria-based anti-nuclear test watchdog, Capt Balbi said.
It follows a report of a loud noise in the same area.
The ARA San Juan disappeared last Wednesday. More than a dozen countries including Russia and the US have sent assistance.
The new information was provided to the Argentine navy on Thursday by the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Capt Balbi said.
In a statement, the CTBTO said two of its hydro-acoustic stations had detected a signal from an "underwater impulsive event".
On Wednesday the navy received a US report of a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" detected hours after the submarine went missing.
Capt Balbi said the suspected explosion took place near the submarine's last known location.
The navy only knew the location of the suspected explosion, not its cause, he said.
Search efforts would be concentrated in the area, he said.
- Relatives of crew members wait for news
On Wednesday, Capt Balbi said oxygen would be running out on board the vessel.
Relatives have been waiting for news outside the Mar del Plata naval base, south of the capital Buenos Aires.
One crew member's sister said: "I feel like I'm waiting for a corpse."
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, South Africa, Uruguay and the UK are among the countries that have sent either ships or planes to help with the search.
The US navy has deployed two underwater vehicles which use sonar to create images of the sea floor.
A Nasa research aircraft has also flown over the search area but failed to spot anything.
What was the sub's last known location?
The ARA San Juan was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the southern-most tip of South America, when it reported an "electrical breakdown".
According to naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi, the submarine surfaced and reported the breakdown, which Capt Galeazzi described as a "short circuit" in the sub's batteries.
The sub was ordered to cut its mission short and return to the naval base in Mar del Plata immediately.
According to Capt Balbi, the captain of the ARA San Juan contacted the naval base once more after reporting the problem.
In the message, he reportedly said that the problem had been adequately fixed and that the sub would submerge and proceed towards Mar del Plata naval base.
The last contact was made at 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday 15 November. It is not known what happened to the sub after that contact.
Read: What happens when a submarine vanishes
How was the alarm raised?
Argentine navy protocol stipulates that in peace time, submarines make contact twice a day with the base.
When the submarine failed to call in, the Argentine navy began its search for the vessel.
ARA San Juan submarine
Missing since 15 November
Built in Germany: 1983
Length: 66 metres
Crew: 44
Top speed: 45 km/h
Range: 22,224 km
Reuters
Navy commander Carlos Zavalla at that point spoke only of a "failure to communicate" and urged relatives of the crew to remain calm.
There was no mention by navy officials of the vessel having any problems at the time and rumours of a fire on board were dismissed by Capt Balbi.
Who is on board?
There are 44 crew on board the submarine, which is under the command of Pedro Martín Fernández.
Forty-three of the crew are men but there is also one woman, Eliana María Krawczyk. The 35-year-old is the first female officer in Argentina to serve on a submarine.
Nicknamed "the queen of the sea" by her father she comes from Oberá, a city in northern Argentina.
Despite having been born and raised far inland, her relatives say that "she was born to be a submariner", citing her "will of steel" and a passion for her job.
The rest of the crew is made up of submariners of varying ages and experience.
The sub's engineer, Hernán Rodríguez, has been on the ARA San Juan for 11 years, local media reported.
