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Burnt out Singaporean ship ‘going down’ off Sri Lanka after 13-day fire that triggered ‘worst ever’ marine ecological disaster
- The near two-week inferno prompted a mammoth clean-up operation as huge volumes of microplastic granules inundated the Sri Lankan coastline
- Officials now fear the destroyed MV X-Press Pearl will sink with several hundred tonnes of oil still in its fuel tanks
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02:24
Fire rages on Singaporean container ship for 7th day off the coast of Sri Lanka
Fire rages on Singaporean container ship for 7th day off the coast of Sri Lanka
A burnt out container ship that has already caused Sri Lanka’s worst maritime environmental disaster was sinking on Wednesday with several hundred tonnes of oil still in its fuel tanks, the 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 firefighters finally managed to extinguish the blaze on Tuesday.
A huge amount of plastic debris has already inundated beaches, and authorities now fear an even greater disaster should the 278 tonnes of bunker oil and 50 tonnes of gas in the Singapore-registered ship’s fuel tanks leak into the Indian Ocean.
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As tugs on Wednesday began trying to tow the ship further out to sea, navy spokesman Indika de Silva said it was slowly sinking.
“The stern of the ship is under water, the water level is above the deck,” de Silva said. “The ship is going down.”
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