New Delhi, Feb. 23: Three sailors were killed and 19 injured, six of them said to be serious, when life-expired explosives being dumped into the sea off Visakhapatnam exploded on board a naval amphibious warfare vessel.

The dead sailors were Sital Das, 28, Bishan Singh, 20, and Ashok Kumar, 20.

The crew of the Indian Naval Ship Magar, a landing ship tank homeported in Visakhapatnam, was packing expired explosives of dated Soviet-era missiles into weighted crates and dumping them into the Bay of Bengal last evening when a charge exploded.

The INS Magar, one of only two large landing ship tanks with the navy, was said to have got only superficial damage on its upper deck. It sailed back to base and docked in around 11 last night.

The explosion was reported around 5 on Wednesday evening. The injured sailors were flown to the base hospital in Visakhapatnam on the ship’s Sea King helicopter.

Dumping life-expired explosives is a standard practice and is carried out in defined areas. It is a delicate process in which the explosives are stuffed into crates. The crates are weighted so that they lie partly buried on the seabed.

A source in naval headquarters said that prima facie, the explosion was the result of either carelessness by the personnel or because of defective charges.

The dry powder charges are fitted with the fuse which ignite the missiles in the Volna air defence system that is installed in Rajput class destroyers with the navy.

The Rajput class was earlier known as the Kashin class and was imported from Russia in the earlier 1980s. Subsequently, the navy got four other Rajput class ships indigenously built.

The INS Magar, a ship that is 120 metres long, is not equipped with the Volna system because it performs a different role. The ship is capable of carrying up to 15 tanks and armoured personnel carriers and a contingent of army troops for assault from beachheads.

Explosives are not usually carried aboard ships unless required for operations. The fuses for the Volna missiles were stored in the armaments depot of the eastern naval command in Visakhapatnam.

The INS Magar was about 45 nautical miles off the coast of Vizag during the tragedy. The ship had a crew of 30.

Navy sources in Delhi said the dumping was nearing its end when a fuse blew. Had it been in the beginning when more explosives were on deck, the impact on the ship could have been devastating.