Suez Canal blocked by huge container ship

A giant container ship has run aground in the Suez canal, causing a traffic jam of vessels at either end of the vital international trade artery.

The 220,000-tonne, 400m-long Evergreen became stuck in the canal on Tuesday and several attempts to refloat it failed.

The Taiwan-owned, Panamanian-registered ship, which dwarfs the tugs and diggers sent in by the Egyptian authorities to try to free it, is carrying hundreds of containers bound for Rotterdam from China.

Pictures taken from another ship in the canal, the Maersk Denver, show the Evergreen lodged at an angle across the waterway.

The shipping monitoring site Vesselfinder shows the stricken ship and the traffic jam of other vessels at either end of the canal.

The Suez canal is one of the most important waterways in the world. It is 120 miles long (190km) and links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and shipping lanes to Asia.

The canal can handle dozens of giant container ships a day so any lengthy hold up will cause serious delays.