The rest have been taken off the ship by the Sri Lankan navy, with one injured crew member flown to the capital Colombo for treatment. Initially, the ship was stranded 38 km east of the Sri Lankan town of Thirukovil, but drifted within 25 km of the coast after being abandoned. Authorities were now towing it eastward, away from the coast, de Silva said. Thirukovil is a town in Sri Lanka's Ampara district that was badly battered by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The 1989 oil spill from the Exxon Valdez, considered one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters, spewed about 37,000 tons of crude into waters off Alaska.

Source: Dhaka Tribune September 04, 2020 07:30 UTC