Three workers narrowly avoid being crushed by 200-tonne oil rig platform

Three oil rig workers are lucky to be alive after they narrowly avoided being crushed by a 200-tonne platform.

The platform was filmed swinging out of control as offshore technicians began dismantling the Santos oil rig off Varanus Island on the Western Australian coast.

Horrifying footage shows the workers scramble to get out of the way as the platform unexpectedly separated from its steel column and began swinging.

Metal cables snap away from the rig as they attempt to control its wild movements.

A quick-thinking spectator urged the crane operator to “get it off” as the fearful workers climbed down the ladder.