Australian oil rig catches fire

Fire has broken out at an oil rig off the northwest coast of Australia. Oil has been flowing through a hole of the rig into the Timor Sea for the past 10 weeks.

The blaze started while workers were trying to plug the hole that has been leaking about 400 barrels of oil a day.

The rig operator said no one had been injured and nonessential workers had been evacuated after the fire broke out. But the oil slick has now stretched across thousands of kilometers of ocean.

It threatens animals along the coast, as Indonesia has found thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil drifting near its coastline.