Over 20 Vietnamese coast guards reached the drifting Panamanian cargo vessel the Bright Royal on October 9 off the coast of central Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces after it crashed into a reef on October 4.

The vessel was towed to the Hyundai Vinashin Ship Building Factory in central Khanh Hoa Province for repairs.

Head of the province's Environmental Protection Department Nguyen Quoc Tan said that the owner of the Bright Royal had yet to deal with the oil slick that had occurred as a result of the incident.

The cargo vessel and its 24 crew members had been carrying around 27,000 tonnes of clinker from Vietnam's central Ha Tinh Province to Bangladesh.-VNA