Shipping traffic through Egypt's Suez Canal resumed on Monday (Mar 29) after a giant container ship that had been blocking the busy waterway for almost a week was refloated, the canal authority said.

A Reuters witness saw the ship moving and a shipping tracker and Egyptian TV showed it positioned in the centre of the canal.

"Admiral Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, has announced the resumption of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal," the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement.

Television footage showed tugboat crews sounding their foghorns in celebration after the ship was dislodged.

The breakthrough followed what appeared to be a setback and came moments after the ship had temporarily settled back into the diagonal position it had been stuck in after running aground last Tuesday.

Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats finally managed to wrench the bulbous bow from the canal’s sandy bank, setting it free.

After hauling the fully laden 220,000-tonne vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the shoreline toward the centre of the artery.

Evergreen Line said on Monday that the Ever Given container ship would be inspected for seaworthiness.

Taiwan listed Evergreen, which is leasing the ship, said decisions regarding the vessel's cargo would be made after the inspection and that it would coordinate with the ship's owner after investigation reports were completed.