In Baltimore, the toll of the tragedy is more than likely heavy. Rescuers on Tuesday evening suspended searches around the bridge which collapsed the previous night after being hit by a container ship, with US authorities believing that the six missing people were now presumed dead.
“Based on the length of the search carried out…, the temperature of the water, at this time we do not estimate that we will find these individuals still alive,” said Coast Guard Vice Admiral Shannon Gilreath at a press conference.
Divers on site this Wednesday
Since the spectacular collapse of the important Francis Scott Key highway bridge in the strategic port of Baltimore, on the east coast of the United States, the authorities have deployed numerous means by air, on land, at sea and even under the water, finding two survivors, one of whom was seriously injured. But Tuesday evening, faced with the difficult conditions, “the tide and the currents which make the work of divers dangerous”, “we are going to suspend the active research phase”, said Shannon Gilreath. “We are simply moving to a new phase” of relief, he added, with another official specifying that divers would be on site from the early hours of Wednesday.
The victims are believed to be public works workers who were working on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed, with an official from their company telling local press that six of them were presumed dead. Two Guatemalans are among eight people initially reported missing, authorities in the Central American country said.
The police a priori rule out a terrorist act
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott spoke of “an inconceivable tragedy,” with police saying they ruled out a terrorist act a priori. The toll of this “terrible accident”, in the words of President Joe Biden, would have been worse if the ship, which suffered a “momentary loss of propulsion”, had not succeeded in launching a distress call.