Ship runs aground off Mauritius

Updated 09 Mar, 2021

PORT LOUIS, (Mauritius): Mauritius deployed its coastguard and armed forces on Monday after a Chinese-flagged trawler containing 130 tonnes of oil ran aground off the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. It is the second shipwreck in less than a year off Mauritius, after a tanker struck a reef in July and leaked 1,000 tonnes of fuel in the country’s worst environmental disaster.

The captain of the Lurong Yuan Yu issued distress calls late Sunday afternoon and sent up flares after becoming stranded off Pointe-aux-Sables, in the northwest of the main island not far from the capital Port Louis.

Fisheries Minister Sudheer Maudhoo on Monday said divers had found “no leak, no breach” in the hull of the ship and that efforts would be made to safely remove the fuel from the hold.

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