Traffic in the Suez Canal was briefly halted after an oil tanker ran aground in the busy shipping lane on Wednesday night, local time.
The tanker, named Affinity V, is about 252 metres long and 45 metres wide.
It was stuck in a single-lane stretch of the route, which is used by roughly 15 per cent of the world's shipping traffic.
A tweet from The Suez Canal Authority said there was a technical malfunction in the tanker's rudder, meaning the crew was unable to steer the vessel.
The ship ran aground at 7:15pm, local time.
Shipping monitoring website Marine Tracker showed Affinity V wedged across the canal:
Authority head Osama Rabie said five tug boats were deployed to help release the vessel.
Affinity V was floating again about five hours later, authority spokesperson George Safwat said.
This graphic, which includes the past track of the ship, shows Affinity V as it was manoeuvred into a new position:
Mr Rabie said the traffic flow of other ships passing through the canal had returned to normal.
Affinity V was travelling from Portugal to Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port of Yanbu.
It's unclear how much oil the Singaporean-flagged ship was carrying, but it has a capacity to carry more than 110,000 tonnes.
The blockage comes more than a year after the Ever Given became stuck in the shipping lane in March, 2021.
The Ever Given was a much larger vessel, measuring about 400 metres long.
It took six days to refloat the container ship, an effort that ended up needing 14 tugboats and earthmoving equipment.
The blockage created a massive traffic jam that held up $US9 billion a day in global trade.
After being freed, the Ever Given was moved to the Great Bitter Lake, where it was held for more than three months while a compensation dispute waged between canal authorities and the ship's owner.
It eventually reached its intended destination, Rotterdam, in late July 2021.
Last September, the 225-metre-long Coral Crystal bulk carrier ran aground in the shipping route — but that was in a double-lane section of the canal, so traffic didn't stop.
Mr Rabie said that vessel was only stuck for a "very brief" amount of time.
ABC with Wires
