Three Russians missing in storm

SOCHI, Russia, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Rescuers said they were searching Tuesday for three men who vanished during a fierce storm in Sochi, Russia, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The three men were aboard a diving boat that capsized when the port city was hit by a storm that washed away two floating building platforms, a tractor, an excavator and several construction buildings, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

The storm, which swept in off the Black Sea, also destroyed a pier and four building cranes, city spokesman Andrei Popov said. In nearby Abkhazia, the storm washed an oil tanker onto a beach in Sukhumi. The tanker's seven crew members were safe.

Many of the Olympic venues and infrastructure in Sochi are being built from the ground up by Transstroi, a construction company owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, the Russian news agency said.

Transstroi officials said they had not yet begun estimating the total damage caused by Tuesday's storm.