The large container ship 'Ever Given' belonging to the Evergreen Marine Corporation and that was blocking the Suez Canal for a week was freed today, BBC reported a short while ago.Video posts on social media on Monday appeared to show the stern of the Ever Given swung towards the canal bank, opening space in the channel. Maritime services company Inchcape also reported the vessel was freed.
Refloating the ship was a lengthy effort involving tugboats and dredgers. The canal, which runs through Egypt, is one of the busiest trade routes.
The grounding of the Ever Given - part of the Evergreen fleet - meant other ships had to reroute around Africa.
After several days of failing to free the vessel, on Sunday canal officials began preparing to remove some of roughly 20,000 containers on board the ship in order to lighten the load.
Experts earlier told the BBC that such an operation would involve bringing in specialist equipment, including a crane that would need to stretch more than 60m (200ft) high, and that it would have taken weeks.