Argentine submarine missing

buenos aires - An Argentine submarine with 27-strong crew has been missing since Wednesday. 'We have lost contact,' a marine spokesman stated Friday.

On board the submarine ARA San Juan, which was in the South Atlantic, the batteries had caught fire, reported the newspaper La Nación, based on sources from the Navy. The submarine could get through two days without batteries, the spokesman said.

According to reports in the media, two naval vessels and one aircraft are participating in the search in the Gulf of San Jorge off the coast of Patagonia. The ARA San Juan is a submarine with diesel-electric propulsion.

It was built on behalf of the Argentine navy by the German yard Nordseewerke in Emden and started in 1983.