Rescue crews were searching Tuesday for at least six people after the collapse of a major bridge in the eastern U.S. city of Baltimore, Maryland, authorities said.
Video showed the Francis Scott Key Bridge falling into the waters of the Patapsco River after a Singapore-flagged container ship named Dali collided with a support column around 05:30 UTC, 1:30 a.m. local time, Tuesday.
Authorities said several vehicles were on the bridge when the collapse occurred. Baltimore city Fire Chief James Wallace told reporters during a news briefing hours after the disaster that two people have been pulled from the water. One was transported to a trauma center in serious condition, while the other was uninjured.
Divers are dealing with bone-chilling water temperatures of about 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit) as they search for other possible victims.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency, and said the state is working “with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden administration.”
In Photos: Key Bridge in Baltimore Collapses after Ship Collision
The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incident and will continue to receive updates throughout the day.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the ship’s collision with the bridge “an unthinkable tragedy.” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said there is “no indication” the collision was intentional.
But there was no immediate explanation for the incident. The Dali is 48 meters (157 feet) wide and 300 meters (984 feet) long.
Synergy Marine Corp, managers of the Dali, issued a statement saying the ship collided with one of the pillars of the bridge and that all its crew members, including the two pilots on board and 20 crew members, were accounted for and there were no reports of injuries on board the vessel.
The 47-year-old, 2.5-kilometer-long bridge is a major link in the interstate highway that circles the city of Baltimore, which has one of the largest ports in the United States.
It was named after Francis Scott Key, the writer of “The Star Spangled Banner,” a poem later set to music to eventually become the U.S. national anthem.
Key was inspired to write the poem after witnessing the British bombardment of a major U.S. military fort in Baltimore in 1814 during the war between the countries that began in 1812.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
