Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A rescue operation was under way in the US port of Baltimore early on Tuesday after a container ship hit a road bridge which collapsed into the water.
Rescue officials told local media that at least seven people had been pulled into the water, with a fire department spokesperson calling the incident a “mass-casualty event”.
Video footage of the event showed the Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Patapsco river at the mouth of the port collapsing at around 1.30am local time. The bridge carries the Interstate 695 highway across the river.
Johnny Olszewski, chief executive of Baltimore County, the area surrounding the city, wrote on the social media platform X that “rescue efforts are under way”. “Please pray for those impacted,” he added.
Information on Marine Traffic, a vessel-tracking service, showed the container ship Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship, at the site of the bridge surrounded by rescue tugs. The vessel had just left Baltimore for the Sri Lankan port of Colombo.
The 300-metre ship was operating a service for Denmark’s Maersk, the world’s second-biggest container shipping line, according to Marine Traffic. Maersk did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Baltimore is one of the busiest ports on the US east coast, serving a large metro area including Washington DC. Serious collisions between ships and civilian infrastructure are rare events, especially ones causing serious damage and injury.
Read the full article here