Grounded cargo ship Ever Given floating, moving through Suez Canal

One of the largest ships in the world was refloated and moving through the Suez Canal on Monday after being grounded for almost a week, authorities said.

Hopes heightened that hundreds of waiting ships would soon be sailing through the crucial global waterway. A salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wider stretch of water in the middle of the canal where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.

The stern of the Ever Given, which had been grounded about four yards from the bank, earlier had been swung more than 100 yards away, the Egyptian-owned Suez Canal Authority said in a statement.

"This was the result of successful push and tow maneuvers, which led to the restoration of 80% of the vessel’s direction," the statement said.

Admiral Osama Rabie, who manages the authority, pledged the more than 360 ships awaiting passage would start to flow through the canal soon.

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Videos showed tugboats in the canal blaring their horns in celebration. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi lauded the effort on social media.

"Today, the Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis of the delinquent ship in the Suez Canal despite the tremendous technical complexity that surrounded this process from every side," he tweeted.