Titanic submersible search LIVE updates as oxygen expected to run out in hours

An all-out search is continuing to find the missing Titanic submersible as oxygen levels onboard the vessel dwindle.

The deep-sea vessel, named Titan, lost communication with tour operators on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada. As of Wednesday afternoon it was thought just 20 hours of oxygen remained in the vessel.

This means it would run out at some point on Thursday morning. The 6.7m (22ft)-long OceanGate Expeditions vessel reportedly had a 96-hour oxygen supply in case of emergencies.

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British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding is on board, as well as Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman and OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush, reportedly together with French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet. The US coast guard has been leading an international rescue effort which was stepped up after underwater noises were heard on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, although experts have been unable to determine the cause of the sound.

One of the vessels sent to help search efforts is French research vessel L’Atalante which carries a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Victor 6000. This ROV has a capacity to lift the Titan ship to the surface.

The area of the search has been expanded, with the surface search now about 10,000 square miles, and the sub-surface search about 2.5 miles deep. The coast guard had five surface vessels searching for Titan on Wednesday and they expected there to be 10 by Thursday, captain Jamie Frederick said at a press conference on Wednesday.

We will bring you all the latest developments on this story in our live blog