Two tankers collide in Suez Canal
A tugboat works to refloat the Oil Products Tanker BURRI after it collided with LNG Tanker BW Lesmes in the waterway of the Suez Canal, Egypt, August 23, 2023. - Suez Canal Authority/via REUTERS
MOSCOW: The BW Lesmes tanker carrying liquefied natural gas has collided with the Burri oil products tanker in the Suez Canal, reported Sputnik.
Marine Traffic tracking service on Tuesday said that they "received eye-witness report from the Suez Canal that 2 tankers have collided.
"The reported incident involves the Burri, a Cayman island tanker, and the BW Lesmes, a Singapore flagged LNG tanker," the service further said on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The service has also posted a video showing towing operations monitoring data, which revealed that Burri has already been towed away from BW Lesmes after the collision.
As of 5:43 Moscow time (02:43 GMT), the vessels were located next to each other in the southern part of the Suez Canal.
Later in the day, Adm. Ossama Rabiee, Chairman and Managing Director of the Suez Canal Authority, announced that navigation in the Suez Canal after the incident will resume as usual within a few hours.
"We've immediately handled the breakdowns sustained by an LNG carrier and a tanker during their transit through the Canal, and navigation will go back to normal in both directions within the coming hours," Rabiee said in a statement, published by the Suez Canal Authority.
The collision occurred on the 144-kilometre mark (89 miles) of the Canal due to a technical malfunction of the LNG carrier, the official explained, adding that both tankers have been successfully towed away out of the navigational waterway.
--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK
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