Two tankers carrying oil products and liquefied natural gas collided in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal, briefly disrupting traffic through the world waterway before it was cleared, Egyptian authorities said Wednesday. The Suez Canal Authority said that the BW Lesmes, a Singapore-based tanker that carries liquefied natural gas, suffered a mechanical problem in its propulsion and steering systems on Tuesday night. It ran aground after the Burri, a Cayman Islands-flagged oil product tanker, collided with it at the 144 kilometre mark of the waterway, the canal said. The collision sparked a plethora of traffic, with tugboats being used to tow the two tankers away. The two were part of a convoy of vessels traveling through the canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Traffic will go back to normal in both directions within the next few hours, said the canal authority head, Ossama Rabei. The authorities attributed the recent collision to strong currents in this part of the Suez Canal. The canal services firm Leth Agencies said it delayed the transit of 21 southbound vessels that were scheduled to pass through the waterway on Tuesday. Egypt's economy relies heavily on its canal, which carries about 10 percent of global trade, a major source of foreign currency for the government. MarineTraffic, a vessel tracking service provider, released a time-lapse video of the incident that showed the Burri turning to the port and colliding with the BW Lesmes, which was already grounding across the waterway. The Burri, built in 2018, is 250 meters long and 44 meters wide. The BW Lesmes was constructed three years later, and it is 295 meters long and 46.43 meters wide, according to MarineTraffic. The canal authorities said they managed to refloat and tow away the BW Lesmes. They also removed the Burri from the waterway. The authority released images of Lesmes anchored in the canal, while others show the Burri being towed away. All crew members are safe and accounted for and there were no injuries or any reports of pollution, the operators of the BW Lesmes said in a statement. initial inspections showed there was no significant damage to the tankers, or pollution at the site. A technical team from Oslo, Norway, is to arrive at the vessel later Wednesday to investigate. The incident was the latest case of a vessel that had been stuck in the crucial waterway. The Suez Canal has experienced a surge of ships that have been sank or broken down in the past few years. Earlier this month, a tugboat sank in the canal after colliding with a Hong Kong-flagged tanker. Tuesday's collision happened at the same canal where the Panama-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship nearly 400 meters long, crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal in March 2021, blocking the waterway for six days and disrupting global trade. The Lesmes is shorter than the Ever Given. The canal, which connects the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, was opened in 1869. It provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. The canal authority operates a convoy system, consisting of one northbound and one southbound daily. The Suez Canal Authority reported that 23851 vessels passed through the waterway last year, compared to 20649 vessels in 2021. In 2022, the canal's revenue reached $8 billion, the highest in its history.