Indonesia: Missing submarine has sunk, says country's navy

Indonesian navy said on Saturday that the submarine that disappeared off Bali with 53 aborad had sunk. The navy said that it had recovered the debris. The debris included components and items from inside the vessel. The submarine and its crew of 53 had gone missing and a frantic search was on.

"With authentic evidence believed to be from the KRI Nanggala, we have raised the status from submiss to subsunk," Navy chief Yudo Margono told reporters. He added that that the retrieved items could not have come from another vessel.

"Over the past few days we've recovered debris and items from the last location that the submarine was diving," he said.

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"(The items) would not have come outside the submarine if there was no external pressure or without damage to its torpedo launcher."

Hopes of rescuing KRI Nanggala 402 submarine crew alive had dimmed on Saturday as Oxygen reserves in the submarine were thought to have run out.

The authorities say that German-built submarine was equipped with enough Oxygen to last for three days after losing power.

The submarine -- one of five in Indonesia's fleet -- disappeared early Wednesday during live torpedo training exercises off the Indonesian holiday island.

There were concerns of the submarine having broken apart as it sank

The vessel was scheduled to conduct the training exercises when it asked for permission to dive. It lost contact shortly after.

Neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia as well as the United States and Australia were among nations helping in the hunt with nearly two dozen warships deployed to scour a search zone covering about 10 square nautical miles (34 square kilometres).

(With inputs from agencies)