Admiral Ossama Rabiee, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, stated that salvage operations are ongoing to handle the grounding incident of the containership MSC ISTANBUL during its northbound transit; heading to Portugal from Malaysia.

Adm. Rabiee pointed out that immediately after the central navigation control station has received the notification that the vessel has run aground at km 78 (Canal marking), four tugboats were deployed at once to refloat the vessel.

He also underlined that all the South-bound vessels transited normally, and the rest of the North-bound convoy were instructed to transit through the Eastern waterway instead of the Western lane. (ILKHA)