David Sillito reports on what the latest pictures show

He is re-opening the formal investigation on the advice of the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, Rear Admiral John Lang, following a government-sponsored survey of the wreck.

Pictures of the wreck show two hatches and a door were open

Mr Prescott said the decision had been taken in the light of "new and important evidence" during a survey of the trawler by underwater cameras.

The new evidence is "quite substantial in affecting the judgment arrived at by the old inquiry that she simply went down because of bad seas," he said. "There is other information now that such an inquiry has to take into account."

Remote-controlled underwater cameras were sent down to the Gaul from the survey ship

The move is being welcomed by relatives of the 36 men who died when it sank off Norway in 1974. They have been campaigning for a re-opening of the inquiry.

The announcement came as families of the crewmen who died when the Gaul sank were shown film footage of the wreck.

A government survey ship with underwater cameras has been investigating the wreck over the past week.

Earlier official investigations blamed stormy weather for the accident The new footage appears to back that finding.

Underwater cameras have been surveying the ship for a week

But the victims' families believe the trawler may have been the victim of the Cold War - the government has admitted that fishing boats were used to spy on the Russians.

Some families believe the ship's crew were captured by Russians, but the cameras have captured images of what appear to be human remains in one of the cabins.

Mr Prescott, MP for Hull East - where 32 of the Gaul victims were from - attended the private viewing of the new footage at London's Guildhall.