A major bridge has collapsed in the US city of Baltimore after it was hit by a cargo ship in what the city’s fire department has called a “dire emergency”.
Rescue teams are searching the water under the bridge for casualties, with as many as 20 workers thought to have fallen in, according to the Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD).
Two people have been rescued from the water and one is in a “very serious condition,” said BCFD chief James Wallace.
Here’s everything we know about the incident so far.
What happened?
Footage shows a large section of the 1.6 mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge falling into the water following the collision at around 1.30am local time (5.30am UK time).
The city fire department’s communications chief Kevin Cartwright has called the incident a “developing mass casualty event”, adding it was too early to know how many people were affected.
What does the video show?
It shows the vessel approaching the bridge before the structure collapses into the water.
Vehicles can be seen falling from the bridge.
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Footage showing the moment bridge collapsed
What do we know about the cars that fell into the river?
Mr Cartwright said multiple vehicles were on the Key Bridge when it was struck by the ship, one of which was the size of a tractor-trailer.
He said it appears there are “some cargo or retainers hanging from the bridge”, creating unsafe and unstable conditions, and that emergency service workers were operating cautiously as a result.
All lanes were closed before bridge collapse
All lanes were closed on the bridge before the collapse and all traffic was being re-routed, the Maryland Transport Authority said just before 2am.
What do we know about the bridge itself?
The Francis Scott Key Bridge is an enormous steel structure which carries the Interstate 695 highway over the Patapsco River southeast of the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Built in 1977 and referred to locally as the Key Bridge, it was named after the author of the American national anthem.
The bridge is more than 8,500ft, or 1.2 miles, long in total.
The bridge pictured before it collapsed. Pic: Charles Floyd/Alamy
Its main section spans 1,200ft and was one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world upon its completion, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.
What do we know about the ship that hit it?
The container ship, known as Dali, was headed to Colombo in Sri Lanka at the time of the collision.
It appears to have sustained damage, a fire department official told Sky News partner network CNBC, though the ship’s management company Synergy Marine Group said all crew on board have been accounted for and no injuries have been reported.
It confirmed the Singapore-flagged Dali vessel collided with one of the Key Bridge pillars while under the control of two pilots. The firm said the exact cause of the incident was yet to be determined.
Baltimore bridge latest: Follow live updates
CCTV and marine tracking data shows the container ship lost power for around 60 seconds about four minutes before it hit the bridge. It appeared to adjust its course and start smoking before impact.
The vessel’s individual incident response service has been mobilised, Synergy added.
According to ship tracking website VesselFinder, Dali had been involved in a 2016 collision at the Port of Antwerp as it tried to leave the port.
It said the vessel had “substantial stern momentum” causing the collision with a stone wall of the quay.
The berth where the ship had been docked was “seriously damaged and closed for cargo handling operations due to safety reasons”, the website said.
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What have experts said?
A maritime safety expert says the “most likely” cause of the crash was a failure in the ship’s machinery.
David McFarlane, director of Maritime Risk and Safety Consultants Ltd, told Sky News: “The first thing that springs to my mind is: was there a sudden fault with the ship’s engines or the steering gear? The other, of course, is: was there a navigational error?”
Mr McFarlane said a human error was less likely because of the number of people who would have been on duty.
He added: “There should be no room for one-person errors because one of the other people should jump in and say ‘hang on…’.
“The most likely cause of this is a failure in machinery or steering gear, but we just won’t know until the authorities have been on board. And even then, they’re unlikely to say what’s been going on for some considerable time.”
Is it normal for a bridge to collapse so suddenly?
Civil and structural engineer Julian Carter told Sky News bridges such as the one in Baltimore are “very weak at points”.
“It proves with many of these structures – and we have similar ones in the UK – that they’re actually quite simple in concept… but they’re very weak at certain points. And a ship collision is quite complex because as a ship impacts, it changes shape.
“But you can imagine the amount of energy that is in that container ship, thousands and thousands and tons that are coming to hit the pier.
“Now they’ve hit the pier, and that certainly would not have been part of the design basis, I would assume, otherwise we’d have very large fenders around that pier base as it’s in the water.
“An incredibly unfortunate event that with modern technology [like] satellite navigation, we would expect it just simply not to happen.
“But if you then look at the way that it has collapsed, it’s what we call a continuous structure – every little piece is connected to another. And unfortunately, it’s catastrophic collapse.”
Lead up to incident seemed ‘unusual’
“It’s a frightful incident and shows how fragile maritime infrastructure is if you don’t get things right,” said Chris Parry, former Royal Navy rear admiral.
“It’s happening at night… so mercifully, there won’t be too many people on the bridge. It’s not commuter time.”
He said it appears from video footage that the ship was “off track” as it headed towards the bridge, adding: “Normally the air traffic control system would have warned him [the pilot] about that if he was on track for the bridge.
“Frankly it’s a routine operation,” he continued. “We’re going to have to wait for the inquiry to see what happened. But it’s unusual unless they’ve had a mechanical or electrical failure that that sort of thing should happen.”