Giant ship blocking Suez Canal finally freed

 Giant ship blocking Suez Canal finally freed

A giant ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week

has been finally freed, the Egyptian authorities say.

The 400m long (1,300ft) Ever Given was wedged across

the canal before salvage crews dislodged her on Monday.

It was not immediately clear when full traffic could resume in the canal.

Suez is one of the world’s busiest trade routes, and companies

were forced to reroute ships, causing long tailbacks of hundreds of vessels.

Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the Ever

Given had been refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday,

“thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again”.

The vessel was towed to a location outside the channel for further inspection.

To refloat the 224,000-ton vessel, approximately 30,000 cubic meters

of sand was dredged and a total of eleven harbour tugs and two

powerful seagoing tugs were deployed, according to Boskalis.

Egyptian TV footage showed the ship aligned in a straight position

along the canal.