Baltimore
Highway bridge collapses after ship collision – Maryland governor declares state of emergency
Watch the video: Baltimore – highway bridge collapses after ship collision.
Video source: n-tv
In the US city of Baltimore, a bridge several hundred meters long collapsed after a cargo ship rammed the structure. A search is underway for missing people, two people have already been rescued from the water.
This article will be continually updated.
A container ship rammed a multi-lane highway bridge in the port city of Baltimore in the US state of Maryland, causing it to collapse. This was reported by several US media outlets (including the New York Times) on Tuesday morning (CET). According to CNN, rescue workers are currently looking for at least 20 people who may have fallen into the water. The governor of Maryland declared a state of emergency in the US state after the collapse.
According to the fire department, two people were rescued from the water at midday. One person was taken to a hospital in serious condition, Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said at a news conference.
According to the owners, the ship’s crew is doing well. There were no injuries on the ship, it said in a statement available to the New York Times on Tuesday morning (local time).
Watch the video: USA correspondent about devastating ship collision in Baltimore – “Thank God it was in the middle of the night”.
Several vehicles fell into the water after the accident at the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday night, according to a video posted on Platform X. According to the video, the ship was on fire and thick black smoke was rising from it.
Emergency calls were received around 1:30 a.m. (local time), Baltimore Fire Department communications director Kevin Cartwright told the AP news agency. It was reported that a ship traveling from Baltimore struck a bridge pier, causing the bridge to collapse.
Several vehicles were said to have been on the bridge at the time, including one the size of a semi-trailer truck. “Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people,” Cartwright said. It looks like an incident with numerous victims.
In addition to the fire department, rescue workers from the US Coast Guard and a diving team are on duty to rescue any survivors from the Patapsco River. The outside temperature feels like minus one degree Celsius or less, the water is certainly colder, explained Cartwright.
Container ship hits bridge in Baltimore
The Singapore-flagged container ship “Dali”, which is around 300 meters long, is said to have caused the accident while crossing the bridge. According to the ship tracking service “Vesselfinder”, it was heading towards Colombo in Sri Lanka. Brandon M. Scott, mayor of the city of 580,000, said on “Rescue workers are on site and operations are underway.”
The Maryland governor’s office says it is in close contact with US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of Baltimore, the board of directors of the district of the same name and the emergency services, according to a statement by Governor Wes Moore published on Platform X on Tuesday .
The Francis Scott Key Bridge spanned the Patapsco River in the southeast of the city and was part of Interstate Highway 695. It was opened in 1977 and had a total length of around 2,800 meters.
Sources: “New York Times”, “Vesselfinder”,BNO, Brandon M. Scottnews agencies AFP, Associated Press, Reuters and DPA