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Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks, sparking pollution fears
A deepwater oil platform that burned for more than a day after an explosion has sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as hopes faded of finding 11 missing workers.
The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon could release more than 1,135,600 litres of crude oil a day into the water. The environmental hazards would be greatest if the spill were to reach the Louisiana coast, about 50 miles (80km) away.
Crews searched by air and water for the missing workers, hoping they had managed to reach a lifeboat, but one relative said family members had been told it was unlikely any of the missing had survived Tuesday night's blast. More than 100 workers escaped the explosion and fire. Four were critically injured.
Carolyn Kemp said her grandson, Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, was among the missing. He would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded.
"They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard."