A containership has crashed into a Baltimore bridge overnight, leading to it’s entire collapse and several vehicles falling into the river.
At around 1.30am local time (5.30am UK time) this morning, the Singapore-flagged vessel ‘Dali’ struck a column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which forms part of a major highway into the city.
Up to twenty people are understood to have plunged into the river with their vehicles and the local fire department has described the incident as a ‘mass casualty event’. No injuries or fatalities have been confirmed at this point and a multi agency rescue operation is underway.
The 300m long vessel had departed Baltimore port on it’s way to Colombo and is understood to have collided with the bridge around 45 minutes later.
The ship lost power and steering, but the crew managed to notify authorities of the potential disaster and further traffic entering the bridge was stopped just before the collision, which is believed to have saved many lives.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody involved on this tragedy and we very much hope for a successful rescue operation.
The below footage captures the moment the bridge collapsed.
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