MOSCOW, Aug. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia has decided to buy two deep-diving Scorpio rescue vehicles to boost its rescue capabilities following a submarine accident that trapped seven crewmembers for three days after the mini-submarine got entangled with fishing nets and an antenna on the Pacific seabed.

    Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov decided to buy two remote-controlled, deep-diving Scorpio underwater vehicles for the Russian navy, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Viktor Fyodorov toldthe Itar-Tass news agency Tuesday.

    The AS-28 mini-submarine, itself meant for rescue operations, got ensnarled Thursday night by fishing nets and an antenna of Russia's coastal monitoring system on the seabed off the KamchatkaPeninsula and was lifted to surface Sunday with all the crew members alive.

    The crew was salvaged at the end of an around-the-clock rescue operation that was assisted by a British Scorpio underwater vehicle, which was submerged to cut the entanglements.

    Russia was quick to ask for international help after the accident occurred. Britain and the United States airlifted Scorpiosubmersibles to join the rescue work.

    The lobster-shaped Scorpios are equipped with black and white video cameras, two robotic arms that can each lift about 250 pounds and a cable cutter that can slice through 2.54 cm-thick steel cables.

    The British Scorpio played a key role in the operation to free the submarine, Fyodorov said.

    The decision to buy Scorpios came a day after Fyodorov underlined the need to have efficient rescue equipment in the wakeof the submarine accident.

    The Russian navy "has advanced submarines but does not have efficient rescue vehicles," he said Monday.

    "If we had had a rescue vehicle of this kind, we could have rescued the mini-submarine within a day," Fyodorov said. Enditem