Lost Kursk mariners never to be found will have a symbolic last resting place at a burial ground in Russia’s second city, the “northern capital” of St. Petersburg.

        Naval authorities have announced plans for a ceremony committing to sacred ground the ethereal remains of seamen whose bodies - pulverised or blown apart - can never be interred in a normal way.

        Proceedings at Serafimovskoye cemetery will take place when all work has been finished inside the submarine’s hull at Roslyakovo, near Murmansk in Arctic northern Russia. Rites of the ritual will be planned to respect requests by families of 30 perished crewmen that their loved ones go to graves in St. Petersburg.

        Plans were discussed when relatives of the dead met deputy commander of Leningrad region naval base Fyodor Smuglin.

        Bodies of 11 sailors found in the submarine will be buried in the famous cemetery on Saturday, Interfax news agency reported. The crewmen are from Russia, the Caspian, Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine. They will be interred in the same grounds as a lieutenant-commander and a senior lieutenant already buried there.

        Northern Fleet commander Admiral Vyacheslav Popov and other officers are expected to attend the ceremony.

        Latest reports from the Russian Navy said 57 bodies had now been found in the submarine's wreckage.

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