One Royal Navy officer was shot dead and another critically injured after a rating guarding Britain’s flagship nuclear submarine “went crazy” and turned his gun on them.
An able seaman held at the scene on suspicion of murder is understood to have opened fire with an SA80 assault rifle at 12.12pm after a row broke out in the control room of HMS Astute, which was berthed in Southampton.
Sources said the rating had just collected the rifle from the submarine’s weapons store as he came on guard duty, and was due to take up his sentry position on the gangplank when the row started. He fired several rounds before he was overpowered.
The dead officer was named by sources as Lt-Cdr Ian Molyneux, the vessel’s weapons engineering officer.
It also emerged that several VIP guests, including the city’s mayor, were on board at the time, and a party of schoolchildren was standing on the dockside waiting to board the vessel when the shooting happened.
The Ministry of Defence insisted that the incident had not caused a wider threat to public safety.
Astute, which has been plagued by bad luck since it was launched by the Duchess of Cornwall in 2007, was on a five-day public relations visit to Southampton. The £1billion vessel carries Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles. One source told The Daily Telegraph: “It appears this rating got into an argument then just went crazy and began shooting people.
''He has not served in Afghanistan so it doesn’t appear to be related to combat stress like post-traumatic stress disorder.”
Neither of the victims was in the gunman’s direct chain of command and the motive for the attack remained unclear. It is believed to be the first time a submariner has been murdered by a colleague on board a Royal Navy vessel. One serving officer described the incident as “bizarre” since submariners are chosen for being stable and mature characters who can remain calm despite spending months at sea “in a small metal tube”.
Continued
No comments:
Post a Comment