A complex salvage operation is under way to remove the wreckage of the Baltimore bridge in a first step towards reopening the vital port and recovering the bodies of the four workers still missing, presumed dead.
Seven floating cranes, including the largest on the Atlantic seaboard, 10 tugs, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats, along with teams of engineers are involved in the mammoth task to clear the twisted metal and concrete remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from Maryland’s Patapsco River.
Image: Experts are trying to work out how to break up the wreckage for removal. Pic: Reuters
US Coast Guard rear admiral Shannon Gilreath said experts were trying to work out how to “break that bridge up into the right-sized pieces that we can lift”.
Maryland governor Wes Moore said: “To go out there and see it up close, you realise just how daunting a task this is.
“With a salvage operation this complex – and frankly with a salvation operation this unprecedented – you need to plan for every single moment.”
He said shipping containers aboard the cargo vessel had been ripped apart “like papier-mache” in the crash.
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The wreckage has blocked ships from entering or leaving the busy port and also hampered the search for the missing workers.
The governor said: “We have to bring a sense of closure to these families.”
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0:56
Inside ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge
Highlighting the mounting financial cost, he added: “What we’re talking about today is not just about Maryland’s economy, this is about the nation’s economy.
“The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in this country.”
Maryland’s secretary of transportation Paul J Wiedefeld said his department was already planning for rebuilding of the bridge and “considering innovative design, engineering and building methods so that we can quickly deliver this project”.
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Aftermath of Baltimore bridge wreckage
Meanwhile, the authorities have imposed a no-fly zone over the area with people told to keep drones away.
The victims of the disaster, members of a road crew fixing potholes on the bridge when it was destroyed, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, officials said.
At least eight people initially went into the water when the ship struck the bridge column, and two of them were rescued.
Divers subsequently recovered the bodies of two men from a pick-up truck in the river, but the extent of the debris and murky underwater conditions have complicated efforts to find the other four workers.
The White House has approved $60m (£48m) in immediate aid, and US President Joe Biden has said the federal government will pay the full cost of rebuilding the road bridge, which was completed in 1977 and carried 30,000 vehicles a day.
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The cargo ship, which was managed by Synergy Marine Group, was heading from Baltimore to Sri Lanka at the time of the crash.
It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd and was chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk.
Synergy said in a statement: “We deeply regret this incident and the problems it has caused for the people of Baltimore and the region’s economy that relies on this vitally important port.”
The firm has said it will continue to co-operate with the investigation.
Of the 21 crew members on the ship, only one was slightly injured and needed stitches.
The huge 86,000-tonne vessel was carrying nearly 4,700 shipping containers.
A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.
The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.
The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.
Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.
Image: Pic: AP
The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
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The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.
Image: Pic: AP
Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.
It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.
The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.
The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.
Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.
“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Image: Debris covers the ground after the explosion. Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”
It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.
“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.
The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.
“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.
Image: Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).
A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.
The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.
Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.
California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.
A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.
James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.
Image: James Comey later removed the Instagram post. File pic: AP
He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.
What does ’86 47′ mean?
The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.
One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.
The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but withdrew from consideration following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.
Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.
Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.
“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.
Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”
Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.
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US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.
The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.
“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.
Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.
Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.
While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.