Sri Lanka officials have asked a Chinese vessel that was carrying radioactive material to leave Hambantota port immediately, reported Newswire. The ship, the report claimed, had not disclosed any information regarding the radioactive material while entering the port. 

The Chinese ship, en route to China, was docked at the Hambantota port on Tuesday evening. Anil Ranjith, the director-general of the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Regulatory Council, said the ship had arrived from the port of Rotterdam. 

He informed that the vessel was asked to leave the inner port area immediately once it came to light that it was carrying radioactive material. However, later it was to leave the port. 

Significantly, China’s state-owned China Merchant Ports Holding Company holds 70 percent stakes in Sri Lankan’s Hambantota port. In 2017, amid mounting debt, the Sri Lankan authority had divested the majority stakes to China.