December 18, 2007 

Rescuers salvage a half-sunken cargo vessel loaded with liquid caustic soda in Yidu City on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, central China's Hubei Province, Dec. 17, 2007. The vessel was successfully raised on Monday. no leakage or pollution resulted from the mishap and no casualties were reported, accroding to Chen Honglin, vice head of the rescue headquarters. [Xinhua Photo]

A half-sunken vessel carrying corrosive chemicals in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was successfully raised Monday, local authorities said.

It took more than 100 workers about 80 hours to salvage the vessel registered as "Xianghan Shouwei 0298".

Chen Honglin, vice head of the rescue headquarters, said the vessel, loaded with 609 tons of liquid caustic soda, started to sink at 4:00 a.m. Friday off Zhicheng Harbor in Yidu City, Hubei Province.

He noted that no leakage or pollution resulted from the mishap and no casualties were reported.

The ship was traveling to Hunan Province when its owner contacted the local government for help at about 7:00 a.m. Friday after failing to salvage the ship himself.

A rescue ship and a salvage team arrived at the scene that day to carry out repairs to prevent the vessel from completely sinking. By Saturday noon, four acid and alkaline resistant pumps were in use to drain the chemicals.

Salvage workers retrieved the corrosive chemicals Sunday.

The local maritime bureau was carrying out an investigation to determine the cause of incident.