A burnt-out container ship that has already caused Sri Lanka's worst maritime environmental disaster was sinking Wednesday with several hundred tonnes.
COLOMBO (AFP) - A burnt-out container ship that had already caused Sri Lanka s worst maritime environmental disaster was in imminent danger of sinking on Wednesday (June 2) with several hundred tonnes of oil still in its fuel tanks, the Sri Lankan navy said.
The MV X-Press Pearl, carrying hundreds of tonnes of chemicals and plastics, burned for 13 days within sight of the island s coast before rescue workers finally managed to extinguish the blaze on Tuesday.
The operator of the container ship, X-Press Feeders, confirmed in a press release that salvors had reported no visible flames aboard the vessel, though smoke was still emitting intermittently from cargo holds.
A fire aboard a ship that triggered Sri Lanka’s worst-ever marine ecological disaster was finally extinguished on June 1 after a 13-day international operation, the navy said. The near two-week inferno prompted a mammoth clean-up operation as huge volumes of microplastic granules from the Singapore-registered ship’s containers inundated 80km of beach.