Dresden, Germany, March 21 (CTK special correspondent) – The Albis Czech cargo ship that got stuck near the Albert Bridge on the Labe (Elbe) River in Dresden last week was successfully freed with the aid of two Czech tracked vehicles and a tugboat on Monday.
This has been the most serious accident blocking the ship transport on the Elbe River in Saxony since 1978, according to the Dresden Water and Shipping Authority (WSA).
Hundreds of people were watching the several-minute rescue action. Twelve Czech firefighters operating the tracked rescue vehicles helped on the spot.
The Czech ship transported 800 tonnes of salt. The cargo had to be unloaded before the rescue action.
The river police have already checked the ship and they have not found any serious defects, only some minor damage above the immergence level, which does not prevent its navigation back to the Czech Republic.
Albis is yet to undergo a more thorough inspection in Dresden. If it does not reveal any problems, the ship will sail back to the Czech Republic.
Lukas Hradsky, co-owner of the European Water Transport (EVD), said their ship had a permit to sail to the nearest docks.
It will go to Decin, north Bohemia, where it will be pulled out on the shore to revise its technical condition, including engine and gearbox, Hradsky said.
Then, the EVD will deal with the rescue costs, the most expensive item of which was the deployment of German firefighters.
“I put all costs at one up to two million crowns. However, we have not received an invoice yet,” Hradsky said.
Albis got stuck at the Albert Bridge in Dresden last Monday evening.
The Dresden Water and Shipping Authority said after the accident that the ship had probably hit a sandbank and a strong current had drawn it to the shore.
According to archive photographs from the Water Transport Museum in Dresden, Albis is not the first ship to get stuck near the Albert Bridge, similar accidents occurred in 1916 and 1937.
Last December, another Czech cargo ship got stuck under a bridge in the centre of Dresden for a few days and it was rescued by a water wave that the Labe Basin sent from the Czech Republic to Dresden.
