Cargo ship hits Baltimore's Key Bridge, bringing it down. Rescuers are looking for people in water

A container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to snap and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers searched for survivors.

It was also not clear what caused the cargo ship to crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge long before the busy morning commute in what one official called a “developing mass casualty event” in a major American city just outside of Washington. Two people were rescued, and it was not clear how many more might be in the waters of the busy harbor near a key port.

The ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to break apart like a toy. It tumbled into the water in a matter of seconds — a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media. The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.

“Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that. It looked like something out of an action movie,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, calling it “an unthinkable tragedy."

[elizabethstanley]

It is devastating to find out that the people that have lost their lives are people who were working on the bridge and we’re probably asked to stay there even as the ship was sending out a Mayday. if they were able to stop cars, they should’ve absolutely told the people working on the bridge to get off as fast as they could.

[scotttousey]

A fall from that far going into the water there is little chance to survive thus is terrible

[EllieMaes-Grandad]

Repair crews were on the Remagen bridge over the Rhine when that collapsed in 1945. Dangerous risks . . .