People and vehicles fall into water as Baltimore bridge collapses after being hit by ship
A major bridge has collapsed in the US city of Baltimore after it was hit by a cargo ship.
Footage shows a large section of the 1.6 mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge falling into the water following the collision at around 1.30am local time (5.30am UK time).
Vehicles can be seen in the video falling from the bridge.
Baltimore’s fire service said emergency teams were searching for at least seven people.
Baltimore bridge latest: Follow live updates
Chief Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore City Fire Department, said its main focus right now was “trying to rescue and recover these people”.
Pic: Streamtime Live
He said it was too early to know how many people were affected, but described the collapse as a “developing mass casualty event”.
Mr Cartwright said it appears there were “some cargo or retainers hanging from the bridge,” creating unsafe and unstable conditions, and that emergency service workers were operating cautiously as a result.
“This is a dire emergency,” he added.
Pic: Andrew Doyle
Pic: Andrew Doyle
The container ship, known as the Dali, was headed to Colombo in Sri Lanka at the time of the collision.
Data from MarineTraffic showed the Singapore-flagged ship came to a halt at the bridge.
The first ship to arrive at the scene around 10 minutes later was tug Eric Mcallister, according to the data.
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Watch marine traffic after bridge collapse
It was joined by a second tug Bridget Mcallister, alongside a search and rescue vessel, around 25 minutes after the bridge was hit.
Emergency services on scene. Pic: Harford CO MD FIRE & EMS
At least 10 boats are currently involved in the rescue operation.
Synergy Marine Group, the company that owns the container ship, said all crew members, including the two pilots, have been accounted for and there were no reports of injuries.
The company said the exact cause of the incident is yet to be determined.
A spokesperson for Baltimore Police Department told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News: “I can confirm at 1.35am, Baltimore City police were notified of a partial bridge collapse, with workers possibly in the water”.
Pic: Streamtime Live
Baltimore’s mayor, Brandon M Scott, said emergency personnel were on the scene and rescue efforts were under way.
Johnny Olszewski, Baltimore county executive, said he was in contact with the chief of the fire department and the director of emergency operations.
The bridge before the collapse. File pic: Jon Bilous / Alamy
“Please pray for those impacted,” Mr Olszewski added.
The Maryland Transport Authority said all lanes on the Interstate 695 – the road which runs across the bridge – were closed and traffic is being rerouted.
Built in 1977, the bridge is referred to locally as the Key Bridge.
It is one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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