A container ship mysteriously became stuck across the Suez Canal.

ISMAILIA, Egypt — A skyscraper-sized container ship became wedged across Egypt’s Suez Canal and blocked traffic in the waterway, officials said Wednesday, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system strained by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. Images showed the ship’s bow was touching the eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against the western wall — an event that experts said they had never heard of happening before in the canal’s 150year history.

Tugboats strained Wednesday to try to nudge the obstruction out of the way as ships hoping to enter the waterway began lining up in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. But it remained unclear when the route, through which around 10 percent of world trade flows and which is crucial for the transport of oil, would reopen. One official warned it could take at least two days. In the meantime, there were concerns that idling ships could become targets for attacks.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given, said that all 20 members of the crew were safe and that there had been “no reports of injuries or pollution.”

It wasn’t clear what caused the ship to become wedged on Tuesday morning. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, said the ship experienced a blackout. But Bernhard Schulte denied the ship lost power.

Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said in a statement that the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the canal from the Red Sea but none of its containers had sunk.