A Hong Kong-flagged freighter ran aground in the Suez Canal this morning.
It states Sky News.
The 186 meter bulk carrier Xin Hai Tong 23 ran aground at 05:52 this morning.
According to Sky News, two tugboats managed to turn around the vessel, which now appears to be heading for the Gulf of Suez under its own power.
At one point, four other ships were stuck behind it.
Troubled route
The Suez Canal is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes that runs between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The narrowest passage in the canal is only 200 meters wide, which has caused problems for ships in the past.
In March 2021, the Japanese ship Ever Given ran aground at the southern entrance to the canal. It was stuck there for six days and caused a bit of chaos for the global shipping industry – in the middle of the corona pandemic.
Last January, a container ship loaded with 65,000 tons of corn from Ukraine got stuck in the channel.