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Russian Submarine Accident: Crew Members' Families Gather to Await Word of Loved Ones

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Crew members' families have gathered in a northern Russian coastal city to await word of their loved ones.

CNN's Steve Harrigan reports on the mood in Murmansk: one of sadness tinged with anger.

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STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the far northern city of Murmansk, Russians cross themselves, hoping for a miracle, hoping the sailors trapped on the nearby ocean floor will somehow be saved.

"We're praying," she says. "That's the only way we can help. God is punishing us for our sins and innocent people are suffering."

Suffering is nothing new for this port city of half a million, where the sun hardly rises in the winter and hardly shines in the summer. Almost everyone makes their living from the ocean, an ocean littered with Russian-made ships.

(on camera): On the docks here where men patch together 50-year- old ships, there is a sense of anger, a sense that the Russian government is not doing enough.

(voice-over): An offer of assistance from the British was accepted, but only after five days of failed rescue attempts.

"This should have been done a long time ago," she says. "The whole world should be helping to rescue these men. How long are they supposed to wait, another five days under the sea?"

The Russian government insists it has all the technical resources to evacuate the more than 100 seamen on board the sunken submarine. But the rescue effort, now in its fourth day, has so far shown no results.

Steve Harrigan, CNN, Murmansk, Russia.

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