When a cargo ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early on Tuesday, a section of the bridge collapsed, throwing several cars into the river.
A ship struck the bridge at around 1:30 in the morning, caught fire, and eventually sank. Many vehicles were seen falling into the sea below in a video that was uploaded on X, which seemed to show most of the 2.6 km bridge collapsing.
“All lanes closed in both directions for an incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted.
Seven persons were thought to be in the water, according to Kevin Cartwright, the Baltimore Fire Department’s director of communications. Emergency personnel were looking for them.
According to him, at 1:30 in the morning, agencies received 911 calls stating that a vessel leaving Baltimore had collided with a column on the bridge, resulting in its collapse. At the time, there were several cars on the bridge, including a tractor-trailer-sized one.
“Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people,” Cartwright said. Although he claimed it was too soon to determine the exact number of casualties, he called the collapse a “developing mass casualty event.”
According to Cartwright, there seemed to be “some cargo or retainers hanging from the bridge,” which made the situation dangerous and unstable and made the rescue effort more difficult. He declared, “This is a dire emergency.”
According to Matthew West, a petty officer first class of the Baltimore coast guard, the coast guard was notified of an impact at 1:27 a.m. ET, as reported by the New York Times. According to West, the cargo ship, the Dali, flying the Singaporean flag and measuring 948 feet (29 meters), collided with the Interstate 695 bridge.
According to the marine tracking portal MarineTraffic, the Dali departed Baltimore at one in the morning and was traveling to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
Emergency responders were on the site, according to county executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. and mayor of Baltimore Brandon M. Scott.