Crew aboard Ever Lunar safe after containers fall overboard: Evergreen

Taipei, Aug. 2 (CNA) Evergreen Marine Corp., Taiwan's largest container shipper, said Saturday that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day.

The incident occurred at 9:40 a.m. Friday in Peru as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement.

The rolling which caused the containers to fall, the company said, may have been caused by a number of factors, including the recent tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America, and the sudden swelling of waves.

The Taiwan-based shipping operator said it will cooperate with local port authorities in their investigation.

According to various foreign news reports, around 50 containers at the stern of the vessel fell overboard as a result, prompting the temporary closure of the port and briefly disrupting shipping operations.

Port of Callao official Amílcar Velásquez was quoted as saying in a Agencia EFE report that the Ever Lunar was carrying around 7,000 containers and 50 fell into the sea.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, he said, noting that no one was injured as the containers that fell were all located at the stern of the vessel.

Authorities have ruled out the possibility that the items inside the containers that fell into the sea are hazardous, Velásquez said in the report.

"So far, we have observed that the containers carried plastic products, and we have ruled out the possibility that these goods will cause pollution to the ocean," he added.