The Italian Navy has confirmed one of its submarines collided with a merchant vessel off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy. The rare accident resulted in no casualties.
The Scire, a 55-metre (180-foot) U212 submarine, was sailing en route to a training exercise overnight on Wednesday when it hit a cargo ship in the Gulf of Squillace in the Ionian Sea, just west of the southern tip of the Italian mainland.
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The cargo ship was undamaged and went on its way, while the Scire and its crew had to report back to base. No one was hurt in the incident, but the Navy has launched an investigation into how the accident occurred.
The Scire, which was built by German manufacturer HDW and officially began its duties in 2007, is named after a WWII-era Italian submarine which was sunk off the coast of Haifa, British Palestine (now Israel), by a British vessel in 1942. Its wreckage has now become a popular scuba-diving spot.