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Suez Canal: Backlog of 400 ships likely to take rest of week to clear after Ever Given is freed

<p></p> (AP)
(AP)

Clearing through a backlog of ships left by the blockage of the Suez Canal could take Egyptian authorities around four or five days after rescuers managed to free the Ever Given cargo ship, which had caused the delays.

Traffic was due to start flowing again on Monday as the ship was transported to the Great Bitter Lake, approximately a third of the way up the canal.

With crews working full out, it will take until the weekend to get the approximately 400 ships that are lined up on each side of the canal through, said Peter Aylott, director of policy at the UK Chamber of Shipping.

“The vessel will be moved up to the Great Bitter Lake, and then it will be assessed. When it’s in the lake, traffic can then start moving,” he said.

“They can move about 100 vessels a day, but it depends on resources, and it depends on the weather.”

The Ever Given is accompanied by Suez Canal tugboats as it finally movesAP
The Ever Given is accompanied by Suez Canal tugboats as it finally movesAP

Workers earlier successfully set free the container ship that for nearly a week was stuck sideways across the Suez Canal.

Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the sandy back of the crucial waterway, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.

The giant container ship was fully floated on Monday and traffic in the waterway would resume, the canal authority said in a statement.

Egypt's President declared an end to the crisis of the giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal after its owners revealed it had been freed from the bank.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made the announcement on his official social media pages.

“I thank every loyal Egyptian who contributed technically and physically to ending this crisis. Today, the Egyptians have proven that they are always responsible,” he said.

"By restoring matters to their normal course, with Egyptian hands, the whole world can be assured of the path of its goods and needs that are carried through this navigational artery," he added.

Earlier the owners of the Eiffel Tower-sized Ever Given said it had been freed from the bank but was still not floating.

Footage posted on social media appeared to show the 400 metre-long megaship facing the right direction in the water as tugboats battled to straighten it after the vessel smashed into the bank last week.

The stern of the Ever Given started to move away from the canal’s western bank, according to maritime traffic tracking sites Vesselfinder and myshiptracking.

The megaship “has turned but not afloat”, its owner told reporters on Monday morning.

However later in the day, a Reuters witnesses and a canal source reported that the ship had swung back across the channel amid high winds ahead of the next attempt to fully dislodge it.

The source said the ship's bow was afloat in the water despite its change of position, and that the vessel had not become regrounded.

The partial freeing of the vessel came after intensive efforts to push and pull the ship with ten tugboats as the full moon brought spring tide, Leth Agencies said, raising the canal’s water level and hopes for a breakthrough.

Two heavier tugboats joined the mission on Sunday in a fresh bid to move the stricken Ever Given.

The Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal on Tuesday.

Despite a massive operation authorities were unable to remove the vessel and traffic through the canal, valued at more than nine billion US dollars (£6.5 billion) a day, has been halted. Shipments ranging from cars and laptops to livestock and oil pass through the canal every day. Around 450 vessels are now waiting to pass through the canal.

Two boats, the Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, were called in to help tugboats already there. They reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez early on Sunday.

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