Coast Guard suspends search for two Gulf oil rig workers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Coast Guard halted its search on Saturday for two workers still missing a day after a fire erupted on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

Three helicopter crews, a Coast Guard cutter and a fixed-wing aircraft crew spent the day searching a 3,625 square km area around the platform, operated by Houston-based Black Elk Energy, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The search was suspended at about 5.25 pm Central time, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

The blaze was touched off on Friday when workers were welding a pipe on a deck of the platform in shallow waters.