The Accident occurred last night on an oil rig in New Orleans during oil transfer activity

[supsystic-social-sharing id='1′]An explosion on an oil rig in a lake north of New Orleans, apparently caused by cleaning chemicals, left seven people injured and one missing, officials said. There were “many wounded”, at least seven confirmed, and some of them were in serious condition, Kenner Police Department Sgt. Brian McGregor told The Associated Press. He said he expected to increase the number of injuries from Sunday's explosion at Lake Pontchartrain.

No deaths have been reported so far.

Five of those injured were taken to hospitals with "wounds and burns," Mike Guillot, director of Emergency Medical Services in East Jefferson, told the media. He added that they are in serious condition.

"Authorities at the scene of the explosion report that cleaning chemicals exploded on the surface of the platform," the Kenner city government said on its Facebook page Sunday afternoon.

Early Monday morning, US Coast Guard crews expected to send a helicopter to fly over the area to search for the missing person, said NCO Lexie Preston. The helicopter crew would also try to detect any contamination in the air and in the Lake Pontchartrain area, if any, Preston reported. He added that that was the plan to follow on Monday morning.

Reports of fire and smoke from Lake Pontchartrain began arriving at the emergency operations center around 7:15 am, Jefferson County spokesman Antwan Harris said in a statement issued late on Sunday.
Clovelly Oil owns the platform that is in production, said Taylor Darden, an attorney for the company listed as registered agent with the Louisiana secretary of government. Source: NBC