"It's a loss to all of us. It's a tragedy," Antony told reporters before leaving for Mumbai to assess the situation.  One man standing outside the dockyard who declined to give his name said he heard a sound like a rocket or jet engine, then a blast. Another witness said the sky turned red after the explosion. Nearly a dozen fire engines rushed to the dockyard to douse the fire.  The fire was extinguished in about two hours, but a navy official said it was unclear how many sailors were killed or injured. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.  “The cause of the explosion is not known. We are searching for the 18 personnel,” navy spokesman Narendra Kumar Vispute told AFP earlier.  He said divers had been deployed once the flames were extinguished and they were hunting for the men on board.  Ships belonging to the Indian Navy docked in the naval dockyard in Mumbai (Reuters)  The navy ordered a board of inquiry into the explosion.  The accident comes just days after New Delhi trumpeted the launch of its first domestically produced aircraft carrier and the start of sea trials for its first Indian-made nuclear submarine.  In February 2010, the INS Sindhurakshak also suffered a fire while docked in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh state, killing a 24-year-old sailor and leaving two other crew members with burns.  There were fears that the explosion Wednesday might have damaged other navy vessels in the Mumbai dockyard, a colonial-era facility with civilian and military sections that employs more than 10,000 people.
A huge explosion and fire that crippled an Indian navy submarine in its home   port of Mumbai on Wednesday killed at least some of the 18 sailors aboard,   the country's defense minister has said.