A cargo ship carrying tonnes of harmful chemicals is sinking off Sri Lanka’s west coast in one of the country’s worst-ever marine disasters, officials have said.
The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl, carrying 1,486 containers including 25 tonnes of nitric acid along with other chemicals and cosmetics, was anchored off the island’s west coast when a fire erupted on May 20.
Authorities have been battling the blaze since then, as flaming containers laden with chemicals have fallen from the ship’s deck, the navy said last month.
Tonnes of plastic pellets have swamped the island’s coastline and rich fishing grounds, creating one of the biggest environmental crises in decades, experts say.
“The salvage company involved in the X-Press Pearl has indicated that the vessel is sinking at the current position,” fisheries minister Kanchana Wijesekera said in a tweet.
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(Image: SRI LANKA AIR FORCE/AFP via Gett)
The government has banned fishing along an 80-kilometre stretch of coastline, affecting 5,600 fishing boats, while hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to clean the beach.
A salvage crew is towing the vessel to deeper water, Wijesekera added.
Rescuers evacuated all crew from the container last week, with two people injured as the fire intensified, the Sri Lankan Navy said last Tuesday (May 25).
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The explosion was reported from within the vessel, Navy spokesman Indika De Silva said, adding that an air force helicopter was using dry chemical powder to douse the fire.
The vessel had left the Hazira port in India on May 15 and was on its way to Singapore via Colombo.
Sri Lankan authorities said experts from the Netherlands and Belgium were surveying the ship, while neighbour India had promised to send vessels and an aircraft to help fight the fire.
“A special Dutch flight with vital equipment to contain the fire is now expected to reach Sri Lanka,” Sri Lanka’s shipping minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena said.