- A bridge in the US city of Baltimore has entirely collapsed into the Patapsco River after being hit by a container ship
- Up to 20 people and several vehicles have fallen into the river, says Baltimore City Fire Department who are currently at the scene
- The fire department says a large vessel hit a column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge at around 01:30 ET (05:30 GMT)
- Videos on social media appear to show the bridge entirely descending into the water
- A number of casualties have been reported and there is now a large multi-agency rescue and recovery operation under way
This is clearly a major incident developing, and has prompted a major response from the emergency services. It was at about 1:30am local time that a large container ship hit this bridge and then really, the pictures tell the story – the bridge completely collapsed into the river below. We understand the container ship is actually flagged in Singapore. Often container ships have flags from different countries – it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re from that country, but it’s from where they are overseen. This has been declared as a mass casualty incident – that really gives us a sense of the seriousness of the situation. Authorities don’t declare an incident to be a mass casualty event unless it is extremely serious.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-68663071