Navigation in the Suez Canal has been suspended temporarily until the re-floatation work on a ship grounded in a new course is finished, Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said on Thursday.

The 224,000-ton Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container ship, was grounded early Tuesday in the new passage after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm, the SCA said in a statement on Wednesday.