Following a ship collision, a US bridge collapses, sending cars and people into the water.
Suditi Raje A container ship flying the Singaporean flag, named the Dali, made an early Tuesday halt beneath the bridge, according to ship tracking website MarineTraffic.
26 March 2024, Washington
Following a collision with a container ship on Tuesday, a significant bridge in the US city of Baltimore nearly completely collapsed, sending many cars and as many as 20 people falling into the harbour below.
In dramatic video, a 300-metre boat struck one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s footings, causing the steel-framed building to collapse into the Patapsco River.
As the bridge bends and falls in places, lights from what appear to be cars can be seen on the road surface. The third tranche cantilevers upward before collapsing into the lake.
There are also a few minor explosions visible during the quick fall.
There is a multi-agency mass casualty incident now in progress.
We acknowledge that a car, a tractor trailer, or a vehicle the size of a tractor trailer might have been on the bridge when it fell.”
In the moments before the crash, the video seems to show the ship going dark twice and emitting heavy black smoke from its funnel, which might have been engine activity.
At approximately 1:30 am (0530 GMT), a massive emergency reaction was launched, with first response vehicles swarming the shoreline.
According to Cartwright, divers were searching the water for survivors.
The water’s temperature was approximately 48 degrees Fahrenheit (8.8 degrees Celsius), which limited the amount of time that anyone in the water could survive and complicated search and rescue operations.
Images captured at the scene display bridge rubble sitting on the ship’s deck, which was piled several high with containers.
Rescue operations were reportedly complicated by reports that some of the containers were unstable.