Baltimore bridge collapses after ship collision
A major bridge collapsed in the U.S. port of Baltimore in the early hours of Tuesday after being struck by a container ship, plunging cars and as many as 20 people into the river below.
Rescuers
were searching for survivors in the Patapsco River after huge spans of
the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge crumpled into the water.
As
many as 20 people could be in the river along with "numerous vehicles,
and possibly a tractor-trailer or a vehicle as large as a
tractor-trailer, (that) went into the river," Kevin Cartwright, the
spokesperson for Baltimore City Fire Department, told Reuters.
"This is a mass-casualty, multi-agency event," he said. "This operation is going to extend for many days."
A
live video posted on YouTube showed the ship ploughing into the bridge
in darkness. The headlights of vehicles could be seen on the bridge as
it crashed down into the water and the ship caught fire. Reuters could
not immediately verify the videos.
Maryland
Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency. He said in a
statement the state was "working with an interagency team to quickly
deploy federal resources from the Biden Administration." The FBI in
Baltimore said on X its personnel were "on scene".
Baltimore
is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling more than 750,000
vehicles in 2022, according to data from the Maryland Port
Administration.
It
was not immediately clear if any other vessels had been damaged or
whether operations had halted to and from the port, shipping and
insurance sources said.
"We
received several 911 calls at around 1:30 am, that a vessel struck the
Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the collapse," Cartwright said.
Baltimore police said they had been notified of the incident at 1:35 a.m. ET (535 GMT).
The
ship was identified by LSEG ship tracking data as a Singapore-flagged
container ship, the Dali. The registered owner of the ship is Grace
Ocean Pte Ltd and the manager is Synergy Marine Group, LSEG data show.
Synergy
Marine Corp said the Dali collided with one of the pillars of the
bridge and that all its crew members, including the two pilots, had been
accounted for and there were no reports of any injuries.
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