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Sri Lankan navy soldiers work hard to remove debris from MV X-Press Pearl washed ashore
The country’s navy chief said on Thursday that it may take several days for international firefighting efforts to set fire to a container ship off the coast of Sri Lanka amid fears of a major oil spill.
Nine Sri Lankan ships and three Indian ships have been working with international rescue experts to eliminate the eight-day hell on the X-Press Pearl registered in Singapore.
It is believed that the fire was caused by a leak of nitric acid from a 186-meter (610-foot) long ship. The monsoon blows the flames.
He told AFP: “I hope we can completely put out this fire in a few days.”
MEPA chairman Dharshani Lahandapura told AFP: “The hull may be unstable and it is impossible to tow the ship out of the water.”
-Avoidable disaster-
Singapore’s X-Press Feeders, the ship’s operator, confirmed that they were aware of the acid leak, but stated that attempts to keep the leaked container in India and Qatar had failed.
The Sri Lankan authorities filed a formal complaint with the police before taking legal action against the captain.
She said: “Our best choice is to clean the beach. We suspect that any cleanup operation will take weeks or even months.”
The police also arrested eight people who have been looking for plastic raw materials and cosmetics that have been flushed for violating coronavirus lockdown regulations.
The fire on the new diamond tanker was extinguished for more than a week and caused a 40-kilometer (25-mile) long oil spill. Sri Lanka has asked the owner to pay US$17 million in clean-up costs.
The ship is on its way from Gujarat, India to Colombo. The ship is anchored 14 kilometers (7.5 nautical miles) offshore and can be seen from Negombo.
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