Putin meets with defense minister after deadly Russian submarine incident

Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled out of an event on Tuesday to meet with his defense minister after a deadly incident involving a secretive Russian submarine.

Around the same time Vice President Mike Pence abruptly canceled an event in New Hampshire to deal with affairs in Washington, the Kremlin announced Putin was meeting Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu after canceling an appearance at a tourism event.

There were reports in Russian media of an "accident" in which more than a dozen people aboard a Russian submarine died Monday evening. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that 14 submariners perished on a Russian navy submarine while they attempted to put out a fire.

At their meeting, Putin ordered Shoigu to travel to the Russian Northern Fleet's base in Severomorsk on the Barents Sea, where the Losharik traveled after the fire was extinguished, to ensure a "thorough" investigation into the incident, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.

"I ask you to fly to Severomorsk in order to personally listen to the reports and to aim the commission to get to the bottom of the causes of the tragedy," Putin told Shoigu. "I ask you to report to me personally upon your return."

There has been no word of how many people were on board or if the submarine was underwater when the fire broke out.