Rig sinks, 50 feared dead

At least four people died and 49 were missing and feared dead today after an oil rig capsized and sank in icy seas in far east Russia, the country's second major water disaster since July.

A drilling rig with 67 crew on board capsized and sank off Russia’s far eastern island of Sakhalin on Sunday while being towed through a storm, leaving more than 50 dead or missing in the icy Sea of Okhotsk.

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Officials said the crew of an icebreaker and tugboat rescued 14 workers alive from the jack-up rig, the ‘Kolskaya’, which was operated by a offshore exploration firm. They recovered four bodies from water. The rest of the crew were missing, about 200 km off the coast.