Cargo ship collides with weir and sinks in the Meuse river near Maastricht
A cargo ship loaded with sand collided with a weir in the Meuse River near Maastricht at around 8:50 a.m. on Saturday and sank. No one on board was injured in the collision, according to L1 News.
The 40-meter-long cargo ship collided with the weir due to a very strong side current in the Meuse, a spokesman for the fire department told NOS. The ship sank after the collision. However, there was enough time to get the crew safely off the ship and no one was injured, the fire department reported.
It is still unclear what will happen to the ship at the bottom of the Meuse. However, Rijkswaterstaat is working on a solution, said the fire department spokesperson. “They are working on it. It will not be that easy to get the ship out. There is so much water flowing in the Meuse now.”
The fact that there are strong currents in the Meuse at the moment is due to the heavy rainfall of the last few days. As a result, the water level in the Meuse is higher than normal. According to L1News, this contributed to the collision of the freighter, which crashed into the weir at high speed.
