In the US city of Baltimore, a ship rammed a four-lane car bridge, causing it to largely collapse. The Maryland State Transportation Authority announced this on Tuesday morning (local time). According to the fire department, at least two people were rescued from the water. One person was taken to a hospital in serious condition, Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said during a news conference broadcast online.
The search is still ongoing for at least seven more people. The number of missing people is preliminary and could rise, it said. It is a “very big incident”. Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld called the incident a “catastrophic collapse” at a news conference. It is still unclear why the ship rammed the bridge. There were workers on the bridge at night making concrete repairs. But it is also not known how many people were there when virtually the entire part of the bridge, which was just over 2.5 kilometers long, collapsed.
Baltimore: At least seven people missing
As the sun rose, the extent of the collapse became truly clear. The arched struts of the bridge, which spanned the port of the East Coast metropolis as part of the inter-regional traffic artery Interstate 695, protruded like a skeleton from the water. A CBS reporter on site reported, visibly shocked, that the bridge had “basically completely disappeared.” The images show the extent of the disaster.