By msnbc.com staff and news services
Updated at 5:05 a.m. ET: Four workers were killed and 49 missing after an oil drilling platform capsized Sunday in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia's east coast.
The Emergencies Ministry said in a statement Sunday that there were 67 people aboard the platform as it was being towed about 120 miles off the coast of Sakhalin Island in stormy conditions. It said 14 people had been rescued.
"According to reports from the scene of the rescue operation, the Kolskaya platform has sunk completely," Reuters quoted?the local head of the Emergencies Ministry, Taimuraz Kasayev,?as saying.?
A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry in the Far East, told The Associated Press that the rescue team had found four lifeless bodies in the water. They had not yet been retrieved.
The search operation was being hampered by a fierce storm in the area. The Transportation Ministry said the platform started sinking after a strong wave broke some of its equipment and portholes in the crew's dining room.
Updated at 1 a.m. ET: At least two people were killed and another 14 were rescued after a drilling rig with 67 people aboard overturned and sank?Sunday in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East, news agency Ria Novosti reported, citing?a local emergency service.
"As of 4 p.m. local time, 14 people were lifted from the rig; their condition is satisfactory. Also the bodies of two people without any signs of life were found. They will be lifted aboard the Magadan ice breaker," Taimuraz Kasayev, a spokesman for the regional emergencies service, said, according to Ria Novosti.
A distress signal was sent while the platform was being towed by an icebreaker through high seas and strong winds afer finishing its drill mission, Russia Today news channel?said.
The platform was?about 125 miles off Sakhalin Island.
All workers at the rig have warm swimming suits and life vests, the rescue service told Russia Today. There were also four inflatable rafts on the facility.
The Kolskoe rig was built in 1985, Russia Today said. At 230 feet by 262 feet, it is one of the largest oil rigs in Russia. It was due to set sail for drilling off the Vietnamese coast at the end of its current mission, Russia Today said.
The rig was operated by Russian exploration company Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka, Reuters reported.
The accident poses no environmental risks, Ria Novosti reported.
"Fuel stocks at the Kolskoe drilling rig are minimal and are stored in hermetically sealed tanks, and there is no danger of a fuel spill," Taimuraz Kasayev, a spokesman for the regional emergencies service, told the agency.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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