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Officials hunting for a missing Argentine submarine said a sound recorded near where the vessel disappeared is “consistent with an explosion”.

A Navy spokesman said the “abnormal, short, violent, non-nuclear event” had been detected in the south Atlantic.

The ARA San Juan and its crew of 44 have been missing since last Wednesday after disappearing about 300 miles from Argentina’s southern coast following a battery failure.

The massive search for the vanished sub continued today with help from the RAF as it entered a “critical” phase with officials fearing the crew’s oxygen supply may have run out.

According to the navy and outside experts, the oxygen stored on board for the crew would only last seven to 10 days if the sub was intact but submerged.

Submarines need to rise to the surface to replenish the oxygen supply and charge batteries. It is not known whether ARA San Juan managed to make the trip.

This morning, search crews said they had been investigating an underwater "acoustic anomaly" but officials were not confirming whether it was an explosion.

The latest report, of an abnormal sound "consistent with an explosion", now corroborates the "acoustic anomaly", navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said.

Captain Balbi said: "This is very important because it allows us to correlate and confirm the acoustic anomaly from the U.S. report yesterday," he said.

"Here, we're talking about a singular, short, violent, non-nuclear event, consistent with an explosion."

According to the US on Thursday, its Navy detected an object near to where the sub sent its last signal. Analysis later confirmed the object was not the submarine.

the relatives of the crew have been informed about the noise consistent with the explosion, and that the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan.

The country added there is no evidence of an attack on a missing submarine carrying 44 crew members.

Ships and planes have returned to a search area to check on the noise that experts say could provide a clue to the vessel's location.

US and specialist agencies say the "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the submarine on November 15.