Pray they are safe

LOST TITANIC TOURISTS: RESCUERS WON'T GIVE UP | Bangs raise hopés men on missing sub are alive

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

RELATIVES of five men on the missing Titanic sub were last night clinging to hope they were still alive after banging was detected from beneath the waves.

A robot sub which is being sent to the scene could be the last chance of saving the stricken group, which includes Brit Suleman Dawood, 19.

Oxygen, food and water on the missing Titanic sub may be running out but rescuers refused to give up hope of finding the adventurers on board alive.

The men on board are Britons Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman, former French navy diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 73, and tour boss Stockton Rush, 61.

Katherine Ainsworth, 64, who lives in St John's, Newfoundland, where Titan set sail from on Sunday, said: "The whole of St John's is thinking of those men and praying they come back home.

"We can all but pray the Titanic curse has not taken yet more love." US Coastguard Captain Jamie Frederick told how the rescue had become an international affair, with Canada, the US and France involved.

With the oxygen on board Titan expected to run out by 11am, he said: "We have to remain optimistic. This is a search and rescue mission, 100 per cent.

"We'll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members.

"Sometimes we don't find what we're looking for, and you have to carefully consider all of the factors.

"After considering all those factors, sometimes you're in a position where you have to make a tough decision. We're not there yet.

The robot sub, called Victor 6000, arrived on the French research ship Atalante. It can dive to a depth of 20,000ft. The wreck of the Titanic, which sank in April 1912, lies at 12,467ft, around 390 miles off Newfoundland.