Suez Canal Suspends Traffic As Efforts To Dislodge Ship Continue

The Ever Given vessel, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, ran aground diagonally across the single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm.

The Suez Canal temporarily suspended traffic on Thursday as efforts to dislodge a 400 m (430 yard) long container vessel that has blocked the waterway continued for a third day, with eight tugs working to straighten the ship. The Ever Given vessel, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, ran aground diagonally across the single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm. It is now blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for goods, oil, grain and other products linking Asia and Europe. Eight tugs, the largest of them with a towing power of 160 tons, have been trying to push and pull the Ever Given free of the canal's banks, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement.