Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning after the container ship, the DALI, collided with the bridge.
Public affairs officer Kimberly Reaves of the US Coast Guard's 5th District provided an update on the incident on Tuesday morning, sharing that the collisions that caused the bridge to collapse happened at 1:27 a.m. EST.
“The 948-foot container ship, Dali, hit the Francis Scott Key bridge, and it subsequently collapsed,” Reaves said in a statement.
Kevin Cartwright, a Baltimore Fire Department spokesperson, told the AP that the ship collided with a column on the bridge.
Since the collapse, rescue crews have been working to find victims who may have fallen into the Patapsco River. At one point, first responders were searching for as many as 20 people, but now the search has been dropped to seven, and two survivors have been found at the time of this publication.
“Our sonar has detected the presence of vehicles submerged in the water,” Fire Chief James Wallace said early this morning. “I don't have a count of that yet.”
He then affirmed that first responders were still active in their rescue efforts.
“We are still very much in an active search and rescue posture at this point, and we will continue to be for some time,” Wallace added.
As of now, investigators both locally and federally are looking into the incident, but Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley shared during a news conference that no evidence shows the collision was intentional.
“There is absolutely no indication that there's any terrorism, that this was done on purpose,” Worley said.
Mayor Brandon M. Scott spoke at the news conference about the incident, sharing that the collapse “looked like something out of an action movie.”
“Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that,” Scott said.