16 bodies found in Russian oil rig disaster

MOSCOW, Dec 19, (AFP): The bodies of 16 crew from a sunken oil rig were found Monday off Russia's far eastern Sakhalin island as searches for survivors went into a second day as fears mounted that another 37 missing would be dead. "Sixteen bodies have been found since the start of the operation," the federal sea and river agency said in a statement, adding that seven bodies have been pulled out of the water. Regional spokeswoman for transport prosecutors, Natalia Salkina, citing her own information, put the number of the bodies located in the searches at 14. A jack-up oil rig, the Kolskaya, with 67 people on board was being towed from the Kamchatka peninsula across the sea towards Sakhalin island when it got caught up in a storm, capsized and sank within 20 minutes on Sunday.