A major bridge in the US city of Baltimore has collapsed after being hit by a container ship, sending multiple vehicles and people tumbling into the cold harbour below, AFP reports.
Dramatic night-time footage shows the 300-metre vessel slamming into the pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and within seconds most of the steel structure collapsed into the Patapsco River.
Vehicles could be seen on the roadway as the bridge buckled and collapsed into pieces, with the third span rising up before it too fell into the water.
Rescuers said they were still searching for at least 7 people, having pulled out 2 others.
As daylight broke, the scale of the disaster became clear.
Bent steel props were thrown across the ship's deck, on which piles of containers were teetering dangerously, further endangering rescue and recovery work.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said maintenance workers were present at the time of the collision, an incident he described as "an unthinkable tragedy straight out of an action movie."
"We have to think about the families and the people involved, the people we have to try to find," he said.
The footage shows the ship going dark twice in the moments before the collision, possibly indicating some kind of power outage.
There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the crash, but Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said there was "no indication" of terrorism.
Emergency crews swarmed to the shore after the collision, which occurred about 1:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. GMT).
The water temperature was around 9°C, narrowing the possibility of survival and increasing the urgency for divers searching the water, and the tide also complicated the effort.
Baltimore Fire Department Chief James Wallace said sonar had "detected the presence of vehicles" in the harbor, but declined to estimate how many.
One person was taken to a hospital in "very serious condition," he said, adding that the second person pulled from the water was unharmed.
"We may be searching for up to seven people," he said.
Donald Heinbuch, a former Baltimore firefighter, said he saw the bridge from his bedroom window.
"We were awakened by what looked like an earthquake and a long, rolling sound of thunder," he told local media.
"I saw some emergency lights in the area and decided to get what was happening was a disaster response involving multiple jurisdictions," he continued.
The four-lane, 2. 6-km-long bridge spans the Patapsco River southwest of Baltimore.
Named after the man who wrote the lyrics to the U.S. national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," it opened in 1977 and carries more than 11 million vehicles a year, about 31,000 a day.
It is a major part of the road network around Baltimore, an industrial city on the east coast of the United States near the capital Washington.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has declared a state of emergency, a move that will make it easier to allocate federal resources, and the White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the incident.
Shipping giant Maersk said the "DALI," which was leaving Baltimore and headed for Colombo in Sri Lanka, was operated by the charter company Synergy Group and was carrying cargo belonging to Maersk customers.
"We are horrified by what happened in Baltimore and our thoughts are with everyone involved," Maersk said in a statement.
All crew members, as well as the pilots - specialist seafarers who operate the ships in ports - have been located, with no reports of injuries, Synergy said.
While rescue and recovery efforts continue, attention will also turn to what happened and whether the bridge was serviceable.
Some experts have suggested that the bridge's support structures may not have been adequately protected to withstand a collision with a large vessel.
"The extent of damage to the bridge superstructure appears disproportionate to the cause, which is a matter for future investigation," said Toby Mottram, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Warwick in Britain.
Baltimore is one of the busiest ports in the United States, handling $80 billion worth of cargo last year, including a large volume of vehicles.
The bridge's demolition could have a significant economic impact as shipping in and out of the port would be suspended. / BGNES
