The Sri Lankan delegation led by the Attorney General has held fruitful talks with the lawyers and insurers of the fire-ravaged freight ship ‘MV X-Press Pearl’ earlier this week, the President’s Media Division (PMD) says.
During the discussion held on July 18 and 19 in Singapore, the two sides addressed the key aspects of the incident and its aftermath.
The PMD said progress was made on assessing the claims and recovery of the wreckage of the Singapore-flagged X-Press Pearl vessel which was gutted in a fire nearly 16km off the coast of Colombo on May 20, 2021.
It was revealed that the fire had been the result of a reaction of the chemicals being transported on the ship, from which 25 crew members were evacuated safely.
At the time of the incident, it was transporting at least 1,500 containers including 25 tonnes of nitric acid, other chemicals and low-density polyethylene pellets.
The fire that raged for nearly two weeks resulted in a massive spillage of damaged containers, microplastics, plastic pellets, chemicals and other harmful substances into the sea before the wreckage of the vessel sank on June 02, 2021, while being towed away to deeper waters.
This is known as Sri Lanka’s worst maritime disaster to date.
