Baltimore's largest bridge collapses after a ship hit and a number of other automobiles fall into the river | EUROtoday

The bridge Francis Scott Key Bridge of Baltimore (Maryland), 2.57 km lengthy and 4 lanes, has partially collapsed after a cargo ship, flying the Singapore flag, collided with it, in accordance with experiences. Fox Baltimore. The authorities They search the water for a minimum of seven folks.

Around 1:30 a.m., a big ship crashed into the bridge and caught fireplace earlier than sinking, along with inflicting a number of automobiles to fall into the wateras will be seen in a video printed on X, previously Twitter.

“All lanes remain closed in both directions for the incident on the I-695 Key bridge. “Traffic is being diverted,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted in X.

The mayor of the city, Brandon M. Scott, and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. They reported on social media that emergency personnel had gone to the area.

“This is an excessive emergency”

Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told the Associated Press that 911 received several calls around 1:30 a.m. reporting that a boat leaving Baltimore had collided with a bridge column, causing its partial collapse. Several vehicles were on the bridge at that time, including one large one.

“Our purpose proper now’s to attempt to rescue these folks,” Cartwright explained. The spokesperson assured that it is too early to know how many people were affected, but he anticipated that there may be numerous victims.

Cartwright said there appeared to be “some masses or restraints hanging from the bridge,” which created insecurity and instability, so emergency crews were operating cautiously. “This is an excessive emergency”he commented.

The crashed ship It is a cargo ship flying the flag of Singapore, he Dali, which is almost 300 meters long. On the maritime traffic monitoring website MarineTraffic you can see how the boat stopped under the bridge early on Tuesday. The Dali, a nine-year-old ship, left Baltimore at 1 a.m. and was headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka, according to the site.

The registered owner of the vessel is Grace Ocean and the manager is Synergy Marine Group. The company has acknowledged that its Dali container ship collided with a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, without determining the cause of the accident. He has also assured that All crew members, including the two pilots who were on board, have been located and there are no reports of injuries..

The Francis Scott Key Bridge spans the river Patapsco and it is the longest in the city. It is the furthest from the city port and is part of the highway Maryland Interstate 695, surrounding Baltimore.