Experts say clearing Suez Canal may even take weeks; Japanese shipowner apologises for incident

Japanese shipowner Shoei Kisen has apologised for the Suez Canal incident and said work on freeing the ship "has been extremely difficult". Experts said it may even take weeks to clear the canal.

The Suez Canal temporarily suspended traffic on Thursday as efforts to dislodge a 400 metre (430 yard) long container vessel that has blocked the waterway continued for a third day, with eight tugs working to straighten the ship. A traffic jam on the Suez Canal, like the one caused by the massive Ever Given container ship, is rather a big problem. Why is the Suez Canal so important? pic.twitter.com/8AAiHpmQUM CORRECTION: Tug boats were attempting to free a container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal. We are deleting previous videos which misstated the nature of the vessel https://t.co/FQWvYHNAds pic.twitter.com/dLm82ugmzu The Ever Given vessel, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, ran aground diagonally across the single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm. It is now blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for goods, oil, grain and other products linking Asia and Europe.