Old aircraft carrier, once part of mighty Soviet fleet, burns in Chinese lagoon

(CNN) — A former Soviet aircraft carrier burned in a waterway near Shanghai over the weekend, the latest setback for the decommissioned warship since its conversion into a Chinese tourist attraction.

The carrier Minsk, which has been anchored for the past eight years in a lagoon near the Yangtze River in Nantong, Jiangsu province, caught fire during renovations for it to become part of a military theme park, state-run China National Radio reported Saturday.

The blaze broke out Friday afternoon and was extinguished about 24 hours later, the report said.

Images on social media showed thick smoke and large flames burning on the deck of the carrier, with later pictures showing extensive damage to the ship’s superstructure and charred metal on its flank below the main deck.

“There are no casualties, and the cause of the accident is under investigation,” the report said, citing local fire officials.

The Minsk had previously been the main attraction for 16 years at a now defunct theme park in southern China, according to the report.

Recently started renovation efforts to make the ship the centerpiece of another theme park are now in doubt, the report added.

“It’s a pity that a fire has made the prospects of this project full of too many uncertainties,” an official told China National Radio.

Once part of the mighty Soviet Pacific Fleet, the Minsk was the second of four Kiev-class aircraft carriers built by the Soviet Union between 1970 and 1987.

Conventionally powered and with a displacement of about 42,000 tons – less than half that of a US Navy Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier – the 896-feet (273 meter) ship could carry a dozen fighter jets and an equal number of helicopters.

Built at a shipyard in what is now Ukraine and named after what is now the capital of Belarus, it served in the Soviet Pacific Fleet after its commissioning in 1978 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when it became property of the Russian Navy.

Russia retired the ship in 1993, selling it and a sister ship, the Novorossiysk, to a South Korean company for scrap.

While the Novorossiysk was dismantled in the South Korean port of Pohang, environmental groups opposed the presence of the Minsk in the country. The ship was then sold to a Chinese company, eventually being transferred to developers who made it the centerpiece of the Minsk World theme park in Shenzhen, which opened in 2000.

The park suffered financial troubles and eventually closed in 2016, with the Minsk moved to its current site in Nantong.

One of the Minsk’s other sister ships, the Kiev – named for the Ukrainian capital – is an attraction at the Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park in Tianjin, on China’s northeastern coast.

Of the four Kiev-class carriers the Soviets built, only the final one, the Baku, remains in service. It was sold to India in 2004, refurbished and commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2013 as the INS Vikramaditya and is now the service’s flagship.

CNN’s Isaac Yee and Hassan Tayir contributed to this report.

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