Watch: Latest horrifying footage of burning X-Press Pearl

The Sri Lanka Air Force has released more footage of X-Press Pearl which, as reported by Marine Industry News earlier this week, is burning fiercely off the cost of Colombo.

An environmental catastrophe is unfolding as locals are being warned to stay away from any wreckage as it might be contaminated with chemicals.

It’s come to light that, seemingly, the three-month-old vessel was denied entry in India and Qatar before catching fire off Colombo.

Tim Hartnoll, the executive chairman of X-Press Feeders, told Splash that poor packaging was responsible for the acid leak, which the crew had detected while in the Arabian Sea thousands of kilometres away from Sri Lanka. On detecting the leak, the ship’s captain then contacted two ports – Hazira on the west coast of India and Hamad in Qatar – requesting to offload the containers in question. The requests were denied and the ship, which was delivered from a yard in China this February, made its way to Sri Lanka.

“It was a case of not in my backyard syndrome,” says Hartnoll.