The US Coast Guard is warning the oil spill from an offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico could be five times worse than previously thought. Rear Admiral Mary Landry made the announcement while also disclosing a new breach has been discovered in the underwater well.

Mary Landry: “Specifically, BP has just briefed me on a new location of an additional breach in the riser of the deep underwater well. While BP believes, and we believed, and established a thousand-barrel-per-day estimate of what is leaking from the well, NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] experts believe the output can be as much as 5,000 barrels.”

Eleven workers remain missing from the explosion that set the rig on fire before sinking into the Gulf last week. The workers are presumed dead. The oil slick meanwhile continues to approach the Louisiana coast, with fears it could reach the shoreline by Friday night.