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Detectives interrogating Magadan icebreaker crew towing oilrig

Shortly after that the oilrig capsized and sank for 20 minutes 200 kilometres of the eastern coast of Sakhalin

VLADIVOSTOK, December 29 (Itar-Tass) —— The detectives began Thursday to interrogate the crewmen of the Magadan icebreaker, which was towing the Kolskaya oilrig that capsized and sank in the Sea of Okhotsk. The oilrig wreck killed 17 people, 36 people were reported missing and only 14 people were saved.

The Magadan icebreaker arrived in Vladivostok on Thursday, a source in the Far Eastern transport investigation department told Itar-Tass. “The detectives began to interrogate the icebreaker crewmen. Meanwhile, the necessary ship documentation was confiscated that will allow to restore the process of towing the oilrig,” the source said.

The offshore oilrig Kolskaya capsized in the centre of the Sea of Okhotsk, when the Magadan icebreaker and the Neftegaz 55 tugboat escorted her from the western coast of Kamchatka to Sakhalin. The convoy was caught in a strong storm and the Kolskaya oilrig started to give the May Day signals. Shortly after that the oilrig capsized and sank for 20 minutes 200 kilometres of the eastern coast of Sakhalin. The oilrig is lying at a depth of more than 1,000 metres.

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