Bridge collapse in Baltimore | Search suspended, six people presumed dead

(Baltimore) Rescuers on Tuesday evening suspended searches around the Baltimore bridge which collapsed the previous night after being hit by a container ship, with American authorities estimating that the six missing people were now presumed dead.



“Based on the duration of the searches carried out […]from the temperature of the water, at this time we do not estimate that we will find these individuals still alive,” Coast Guard Vice Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a press conference.

Since the spectacular collapse of the important Francis Scott Key highway bridge in the strategic port of Baltimore, on the American east coast, the authorities have deployed numerous means by air, on land, at sea and even underwater, finding two survivors, one seriously injured.

But Tuesday evening, faced with the difficult conditions, “the tide and the currents which make the work of divers dangerous”, “we are going to suspend the active research phase”, said Shannon Gilreath.

“We are simply moving to a new phase” of relief, he added, with another official specifying that divers would be on site from the early hours of Wednesday.

PHOTO JULIA NIKHINSON, REUTERS

Among the potential victims are workers who worked on the structure, which spans the mouth of the Patapsco River.

The latter are apparently public works workers who were working on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed, with an official from their company telling the local press that six of them were presumed dead.

Two Guatemalans are among eight people initially reported missing, authorities in the Central American country said.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott spoke of “an inconceivable tragedy,” with police saying they ruled out a terrorist act a priori.

Inaugurated in 1977

The toll of this “terrible accident”, in the words of President Joe Biden, would have been worse if the ship, which suffered a “momentary loss of propulsion”, had not managed to launch a distress call.


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