Fire-stricken ship off Sri Lanka starts to sink as crew battle to tow it farther out to sea to avoid massive pollution
Officials had planned to pump contaminated water from the ship onto barges but the operation has been abandoned.
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. An AFP photographer at Sarakkuwa, just north of the Colombo port, said the vessel's stern was underwater.
" suggestion, then, was to take the vessel to the deep seas to minimise possible damage to the marine environment," his office said.Sri Lanka's navy helped Dutch salvage company SMIT to establish a tow connection with their tug to move the vessel away from the anchorage of the Colombo port, about 15 kilometres from the coast.
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