NEW DELHI: An Indian navy officer died and some other workers have been sickened Friday by a gas leak in a ship being built in the Mumbai dockyard.

The state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited said in a statement that the ill workers were hospitalized.

It said a malfunction in the carbon dioxide unit led to the gas leak during trials in the ship being built for the Indian navy.

Two navy officers were killed in a fire on a submarine last week during a training exercise off Mumbai's coast.

India's navy chief Adm D.K. Joshi resigned to take responsibility for that accident and other incidents that have plagued the navy in recent years.

Last August, another of the navy's Russian-made diesel-powered submarines, the INS Sindhurakshak, caught fire after an explosion and sank at its home port in Mumbai, killing all 18 sailors on board.

In December, the INS Talwar, a Russian-built stealth frigate, slammed into a trawler off India's west coast, sinking the boat and tossing 27 fishermen into the sea. All of the fishermen were rescued.