Rescuers made a major breakthrough on Monday morning refloating the Ever Given container ship, which has been stuck in the Suez Canal for almost a week.
On a third successive day of attempts to use high tide to shift the huge vessel, videos from the scene showed the stern of the ship swinging free into the centre of the canal as tugboats sounded their horns in celebration.
The Egyptian rescuers made use of the full moon spring tide to “partially refloat” the vessel at about 5am local time.
But while it was hailed as a success, the canal authorities said “manoeuvres” continued to get the ship completely unstuck. Shipping data showed it is still skewed with its bow towards the eastern bank of the canal.
More tugboats are heading to join the effort now, while there is no clear timeline for when the route will be opened up to shipping traffic thought to be worth up to $9.6bn a day.
More than 320 ships are waiting to travel through the waterway, either to the Mediterranean or the Red Sea. Dozens of others still listed their destination as the canal, although shippers increasingly appear to be avoiding the passage.
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