Rescuers are searching for "seven or more people" who went missing on Tuesday when a road bridge collapsed in Baltimore, USA, and two people were rescued from icy water, authorities said.
One person is unharmed, and the other is in the hospital in a very serious condition - said Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace.
A metal bridge over the Potapsko River in the US state of Maryland, 2,6 kilometers long, partially collapsed when a large Singaporean cargo ship hit a pillar.
Vehicles that fell from the bridge on the road city bypass, primarily intended for trucks, were found using sonar, but it is not yet known how many there are.
Baltimore is one of the largest cargo ports in the US.
The ship hit the bridge around 1.30:XNUMX a.m., then caught fire and sank, according to the X social network.
"As many as 20 people could be in the river along with "a number of vehicles and possibly a tractor-trailer or a vehicle as large as a tractor-trailer, (which) went into the river," Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Baltimore Fire Department, told Reuters earlier.
He said the rescue operation would take time.
A live video posted on YouTube shows the ship plunging into the bridge in the dark. The headlights of the vehicle could be seen on the bridge as it crashed into the water.
After that the ship caught fire.
State of emergency declared
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has declared a state of emergency. He said in a statement that the state is "working with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden administration." The FBI in Baltimore said on IX that its personnel were "on the scene."
Baltimore is America's busiest auto shipping port, handling more than 750.000 vehicles in 2022, according to the Maryland Port Authority.
It was not immediately clear if any other vessels were damaged or if operations to and from the port were halted, shipping and insurance sources said.
"We received several 1 calls around 30:XNUMX a.m. that a ship had hit the Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse," Cartwright said.
Baltimore police said they were notified of the incident at 1:35 a.m. ET.
LSEG vessel tracking data identified the vessel as the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali. The registered owner of the vessel is Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, and the manager is Sinergi Marine Group, LSEG data show.
Synergy Marine Corp said the Dali collided with one of the piers of the bridge and that all crew members, including the two pilots, had been recovered and there were no reports of injuries.
At the time of the incident, Dali was chartered by the shipping company Maersk, the Danish company announced in a statement.
"We are shocked by what happened in Baltimore, and our thoughts are with everyone affected," Maersk said.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Grace Ocean for comment.
The Port of Baltimore's private and public terminals handled 847.158 cars and light trucks in 2023, the most of any US port. According to the Maryland government website, the port also handles agricultural and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal.
More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore Harbor, including small cargo ships, tugboats and yachts, data from ship tracking and marine analytics provider MarineTraffic shows. At least 30 other ships signaled that their destination was Baltimore, the records show.
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