London: Following an unfortunate capture of their nuclear submarine in a trap meant to snare British as well as the US sub-surface vessels in the Yellow Sea, at least 55 Chinese sailors were killed in an accident in August in the Yellow Sea, according to a report by the UK based newspaper, Daily Mail Online.

The Daily Mail has cited a top-secret UK report. The report claims the crew members were poisoned by the oxygen system's catastrophic failure which claimed sailors' lives. The UK report, which is based on military intelligence, has a high level of secrecy.

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper founded in 1896, and news website published in London.

Daily Mail Online further cited the top UK report which read: 'Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.'

'Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng. Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap US and allied submarines,' the report read.

'This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure,' it added.

However, the British tabloid, Daily Mail Online has reported that the alleged disappearance of the Chinese submarine has not yet been independently verified.

There has been no independent confirmation from either the Chinese foreign ministry or the Chinese defence ministry on the reported accident.