U.S. Coast Guard sta94ill searching for missing in Gulf of Mexico

Earlier, a local official told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Louisiana (south) that the 11 missing people had been rescued.

Three others remain in critical condition after a alleged explosion in the semi-submersible Deepwater Horizon on Tuesday night (03h00 GMT on Wednesday), who threw fireballs into the night sky.

The platform is located about 84 miles southeast Venice, on the coast of Louisiana, and after the incident recorded an inclination of between three and 10 degrees and is still in flames.

Fifteen people were removed by helicopter and admitted to local hospitals while rescuers tried to pull the rest of the 126 employees of the facility, operated by the Swiss contractor Transocean, based in Houston, Texas.

Vice President of Transocean, Adrian Rose , acknowledged it “oil pressure or oil-gas-exhaust pipe came up and went up the same, expanded and exploded.”

But it stressed that the cause of the accident is under investigation and that “there is no data to say it was really a blast. is a presumption we do.”

The Coast Guard explained that New Orleans Tuesday 22:00 (03h00 GMT Wednesday) the “monitoring equipment received a message about an explosion and fire at an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

” Four helicopters, one airplane and three Coast Guard ships involved in search operations, “said Mike Blakney turn, another spokesman for the coastguard agency.

” The fire is still burning, have four boats at the scene fighting fire flames, “he said.