LANKA BATTLES RAGING FIRE ON SHIP WITH CHEMICALS ON BOARD

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities battled on Wednesday to put out a fire raging for a week on a container ship loaded with chemicals to avoid a potential marine environmental disaster.

The Singapore-registered vessel, within sight of the shore, is carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid as well as other unspecified chemicals and cosmetics, the navy said.

Eight of its nearly 1,500 containers fell overboard on Tuesday, one of which washed ashore at the Negombo beach, 40km north of Colombo.

Strong winds associated with a cyclone hitting eastern India hampered efforts to put out the blaze as a huge cloud of black smoke rose from the MV X-Press Pearl.

Sri Lanka’s airforce used helicopters to drop about 425kg of fire retardant chemicals on the ship on Wednesday.

Meanwhile two Indian crew members, who were rescued from a container ship that caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka last week, have tested positive for Covid-19, the newspaper Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday.

All 25 crew members, including five Indians, of the container ship were rescued on Tuesday.