An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, close of the site of the April blast that caused the massive BP oil spill.
The site is about 120km south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.
Thirteen workers were on the platform at the time of the blast. The rig was evacuated and the crew have all been rescued from the sea, the US coast guard said. They have been airlifted to hospital.
The platform is "engulfed in flames", he said.
The oil and gas production platform is owned and operated by Mariner.
A company spokesman said no oil had spilled from the platform and that all wells have been shut.
The incident comes less than five months after a well blowout and explosion that killed 11 workers, destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased to BP, and caused the largest offshore oil spill in US history.
More than 26,500 people are working to clean up that spill, which still tars about 200kms of shoreline, according to a US government report yesterday.