Sinking ship loaded with chemicals towed away from Sri Lanka’s coast

Impoverished Sri Lankans walk along the beach as they try to salvage wreckage washed off to the shore from the burning Singaporean ship MV X-Press Pearl (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

Salvage experts were attempting to tow a fire-stricken container ship that had been loaded with chemicals into the deep sea as the vessel started to sink off Sri Lanka’s main port, officials said.

Water submerged the MV X-Press Pearl’s quarterdeck a day after firefighters extinguished a blaze that had been burning for 12 days.