Baltimore bridge collapse: Search operation suspended, 6 presumed dead after cargo ship crash | 10 updates

Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses in Baltimore: US President Joe Biden said the government will pay the full cost to rebuild the Baltimore bridge.

Six people, who had gone missing after a cargo ship lost power and rammed into a major bridge in the US city of Baltimore early on Tuesday, were presumed dead, officials said. Colonel Roland L Butler Jr., superintendent for Maryland State Police, on Tuesday evening said emergency workers were suspending the search operations for the six people until the next day.

Members of the US Coast Guard patrol near the cargo ship Dali as it sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Getty Images via AFP)

Shipping company Maersk confirmed that the Singapore-flagged container ship ‘Dali’ that rammed into the Baltimore bridge, causing it to collapse almost entirely and sending cars and people plunging into the river below, was manned entirely by a crew of Indians.

“Based on the length of time that we've gone in this search... (and) the water temperature... at this point we do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals still alive,” news agency AP quoted Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath a saying.

US President Joe Biden said the government will pay the full cost to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, one of the nation's busiest arteries.

Baltimore bridge collapse: Latest updates

1. Maryland’s governor Wes Moore said the ship’s crew issued a mayday call moments before the crash took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, enabling authorities to limit vehicle traffic on the span. “These people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives last night.”
2. Colonel Roland L Butler Jr. announced that the search and rescue mission was transitioning to one of search and recovery. He added that the search was being put on hold and divers would return to the site at 6am on Wednesday, when challenging overnight conditions might improve.

1. Paul Wiedefeld, the state's transportation secretary, the six people still unaccounted for were part of a construction crew filling potholes on the bridge.
2. Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders – the company that employed the workers – said on Tuesday afternoon that they were presumed dead, given the water’s depth and the length of time since the crash.
3. The rescuers have pulled two persons out of the water. One person was treated at a hospital and discharged hours later. Multiple vehicles also went into the river, although authorities did not believe anyone was inside.
4. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was on the scene and said there was no credible information to suggest terrorism.
5. The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic. The container ship is about 300 metres long and about 48 metres wide, according to the website.
6. Inspectors found a problem with Dali's machinery in June, but a more recent examination didn't identify any deficiencies, according to the shipping information system Equasis.
7. Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC, told Bloomberg that the Baltimore bridge is likely to shut down the port’s coal exports for as many as six weeks and block the transport of up to 2.5 million tons of coal. The US exported about 74 million tons of coal last year, with Baltimore the second-largest terminal for the commodity.
8. Earlier, the shipping company, Synergy Maritime Group, said in a statement that there were 22 Indians on board and all of them were Indians.
   
   (With inputs from AP, Reuters, Bloomberg)