Baltimore bridge collapse: Six missing people presumed dead
The Maryland state police on Wednesday said that the six people who were missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on Tuesday in Baltimore, Maryland, have been presumed dead.
The Singapore-flagged vessel collided with one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland, leading to its collapse on Tuesday.
Earlier, as stated by US President Joe Biden, eight people were unaccounted for after the Baltimore Bridge collapse, out of which two have been rescued, while the rescue operation was ongoing for the remaining six.
He added: “Ship traffic in the port of Baltimore has been suspended until further notice and we’ll need to clear that channel before the ship traffic can resume...it’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge...the people of Baltimore can count on us.”
The shipping company, Synergy Maritime Group, said on Tuesday in a statement that there were 22 Indians on board.
The six missing individuals are believed to have been part of a construction crew who were working on the bridge filling potholes when it was struck around 1:30am local time (0530 GMT), Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said.
It is unclear if any cars were transiting the bridge when it collapsed, but Maryland Governor
The six missing individuals are believed to have been part of a construction crew who were working on the bridge filling potholes when it was struck
Wes Moore said that the operators of the Dali container ship radioed in a mayday call that allowed officials at the bridge ‘to begin to stop the flow of traffic so more cars were not up on the bridge.’ He did not say whether any vehicles were on the bridge at the time of impact, emphasising that the investigation remains ongoing.
“Many of the vehicles were stopped before they got onto the bridge, which saved lives in a very, very heroic way,” he added.
Water temperatures in the Patapsco River were sitting at a frigid 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday morning, according to federal tracking data.
The Key Bridge was one of three main arteries used to transit the Baltimore Harbour with roughly 35,000 people using it daily for their commutes, spanning the entryway to the harbour where the vital Port of Baltimore is located. All commercial ship traffic has been halted to allow for search and rescue efforts to continue.
Moore said authorities are solely working on finding the six people who are confirmed to have gone missing following the incident. He said that for Marylanders, the news that the bridge collapsed early on Tuesday morning was ‘shocking and heartbreaking’.
“For every single one of us who are Marylanders, the words that the Key Bridge is gone, it still shakes us because for 47 years that’s all we’ve known, and so this is not just not just unprecedented from what we’re seeing, and what we’re looking at today, it’s heartbreaking,” he told reporters at a press conference.