IN A tragic incident, parts of a bridge in the US state of Maryland collapsed early on Tuesday morning, after being hit by a container ship, sending several vehicles into the chilly water as quoted by media reports. Mass fatalities are reportedly feared in the incident that occurred at nearly 1.30 am (US local time), with the Baltimore Fire Department saying it was searching for at least seven people believed to be in the water, CNN reported. The entire 22-member crew of the cargo ship is Indians. The response teams are working to rescue around 22 people who may have fallen into the river when the four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in what the Fire Department described as “a mass casualty multi-agency incident”. Two people were rescued, and it was not clear how many more might be in the waters of the busy harbour near a key port. The 1.6-mile bridge, which opened in 1977, serves as the outermost crossing of the Baltimore harbour and an essential link of Interstate-695, or the Baltimore Beltway.

 

“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” (sic), the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X. According to data from a maritime monitoring site and a Coast Guard officer, the ship that hit Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was a Singaporean-flagged container ship, the DALI. The ship is around 300 metre (984 feet) long with a width of around 48 metre (157 feet), CNN reported, citing MarineTraffic data. The report added that the crash sent large plumes of smoke and fire into the air and video footage obtained by the channel showed the boat heading toward one of the bridge’s support columns before colliding with it. The Baltimore Fire Department told CNN that investigators will also assess the condition of the bridge before its collapse. Governor Wes Moore declared a State of Emergency and said he was working to get federal resources deployed.

 

The FBI was on the scene, but Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said terrorism was not suspected. President Joe Biden was briefed. Authorities said a crew of unknown size was working on the bridge at the time of the collapse and that sonar had detected cars in the water, which is about 50 feet (15 meters) deep. The water temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) before dawn Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earlier, Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press that several vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse, including one the size of a tractor-trailer truck. The bridge came down in the middle of night when traffic would be lighter than during the day when thousands of cars traverse the span. As the sun rose on Tuesday, jagged remnants of the bridge were illuminated jutting up from the waters surface. The on-ramp ended abruptly where the span once began. Opened in 1977, the bridge is named for the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic.