Four Dead, Three Missing After Siberian Oil-Tanker Fire

17 September 2004 -- Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said today that an explosion struck the engine room of an oil tanker in northeastern Siberia, killing four crewmembers.

Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said three crew members were missing, and six were hospitalized with burns following the blast yesterday in the village of Yuryung-Khaya in Yakutia, about 4,800 kilometers east of Moscow.

The explosion occurred as the tanker, moored in the Anabar River, was unloading oil. There was no immediate information about the cause of the blast.

(Reuters/ITAR-TASS)