Ships are once again moving in the Suez Canal after a shipping container blocking the waterway was freed.
The gigantic Ever Given has been refloated a week after it first became stuck, bringing billions of Euro in trade to a standstill.
She has now begun heading towards the Bitter Lakes area, according to Egyptian television, with traffic on the canal finally resuming.
A total of 10 tug boats were called in as part of efforts to push and pull the stricken ship at high tide while sand dredgers vacuumed up sand from the canal floor.
The head of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabei confirmed the ship had responded successfully to “pull-and-push manoeuvres.”
The obstruction has caused a huge traffic jam in the vital trade route – holding up around €7.65bn a day in global trade.
It remains unclear when traffic on the canal will return to normal, with nearly 370 ships queuing up at either end waiting to pass.
On The Pat Kenny Show earlier, an Irish maritime expert warned that Navigating through the Suez Canal is an "extremely stressful and busy" time for any ship's crew.
Captain Bill Kavanagh – lecturer in navigation at the National Maritime College of Ireland – explained what navigating through the Suez waterway is actually like.
