2024-03-26 15:33:53
A major highway bridge in Baltimore, on the east coast of the United States, collapsed early Tuesday morning after being hit by a container ship, dragging down vehicles and people with its fall.
Rescuers are searching for at least seven victims in the water and on the seabed, around the immense twisted metal structure, in a spectacular deployment of resources including drones, helicopters and divers.
“Our sonar detected the presence of submerged vehicles,” said James Wallace, the city’s fire chief. “I don’t have the number yet,” he added.
CCTV footage shows the container ship hitting a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to fall into the port along with much of the structure’s metal structure.
We see lights that appear to be those of vehicles on the bridge, before it deforms and falls in pieces, around 1:30 a.m. local time (05:30 GMT).
“We were woken up by a kind of earthquake and a long, resounding crash,” said a local resident, whose windows overlook the bridge, quoted by CNN.
Among the potential victims are workers who worked on the structure, which spans the mouth of the Patapsco River.
One person was taken to hospital in “very serious condition”, the fire chief said, while a second emerged unhurt from the accident.
“There is absolutely no indication that this was a terrorist act,” said Richard Worley, Baltimore police chief.
– Crucial road axis –
The four-lane bridge is 2.6 km long, southwest of Baltimore, a large American industrial and port city, in the state of Maryland, about 60 kilometers northeast of Washington.
It is a crucial north/south axis for transportation and the economy of the east coast of the United States. It is named after a local son, Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
All access to the bridge was blocked by a large deployment of police forces, noted an AFP journalist on site.
Shipping to and from Baltimore, one of the busiest ports in the United States, is “suspended until further notice,” authorities said.
The governor of the US state of Maryland has declared a state of emergency. “We are working with a multi-agency team to quickly deploy the Biden administration’s federal resources,” Governor Wes Moore told Network X.
Shipping traffic tracking site Marine Traffic showed a Singapore-flagged container ship, named Dali, stopped under the bridge early Tuesday.
Danish shipping giant Maersk confirmed it had chartered the vessel, operated by shipping company Synergy Group.
“We are horrified by what happened in Baltimore and we send our thoughts to those affected,” Maersk wrote in a statement.
The ship’s managers said Tuesday that there were no injuries among the crew members. “All crew members, including the two pilots, have been found and no injuries have been reported,” Synergy Marine Group wrote on its website.
The mayor of Baltimore spoke of “an inconceivable tragedy”. “We need to think about the families and the people affected, the people we need to look for, for now we are focusing on that,” added Brandon Scott in a press conference.
The investigation will have to determine how the shock caused by a single ship could destroy several arches of the metal bridge.
Even if the 300 meter long container ship has a powerful force of inertia, especially with its cargo, “the extent of the damage to the bridge superstructure seems disproportionate to the cause, it is a subject to dig into the investigations,” commented Professor Toby Mottram, a structural expert from the British University of Warwick.
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