(AP) MOSCOW (AP) —Officials say at least seven men have died and scores are feared dead after a floating oil rig off Russia's east coast capsized and sank on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said Monday that rescue workers have pulled out seven bodies, while 46 men remain missing. Fourteen people were plucked alive from the icy waters immediately after the accident.
Dmitry Dmitriyenko, governor of the Murmansk region in Russia's north-west where 33 of the men come from, urged friends and families not to lose hope late Sunday, but admitted the chance of the men surviving in the one degree Celsius (33.8 Fahrenheit) water is approaching zero.
"This is a terrible disaster which took the crew unawares," he said in a statement. "But there is still a chance."
The Emergencies Ministry said that 67 people had been aboard the platform as it was being towed about 120 miles off the coast of Sakhalin, a large island just north of Japan in the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific Ocean that until the late 19th century had been the Russian Empire's most remote penal colony.
Of the 67 people aboard, 53 were crewmembers and 14 were workers and support staff, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
7 dead, scores missing in Russia oil rig accident(AP) MOSCOW (AP) —Officials say at least seven men have died and scores are feared dead after a floating oil rig off Russia's east coast capsized and sank on Sunday.
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A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said Monday that rescue workers have pulled out seven bodies, while 46 men remain missing. Fourteen people were plucked alive from the icy waters immediately after the accident.
Dmitry Dmitriyenko, governor of the Murmansk region in Russia's north-west where 33 of the men come from, urged friends and families not to lose hope late Sunday, but admitted the chance of the men surviving in the one degree Celsius (33.8 Fahrenheit) water is approaching zero.
"This is a terrible disaster which took the crew unawares," he said in a statement. "But there is still a chance."
The Emergencies Ministry said that 67 people had been aboard the platform as it was being towed about 120 miles off the coast of Sakhalin, a large island just north of Japan in the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific Ocean that until the late 19th century had been the Russian Empire's most remote penal colony.
Of the 67 people aboard, 53 were crewmembers and 14 were workers and support staff, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
7 dead, scores missing in Russia oil rig accident(AP) MOSCOW (AP) —Officials say at least seven men have died and scores are feared dead after a floating oil rig off Russia's east coast capsized and sank on Sunday.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE
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