Collapsed bridge in Baltimore: rescue work difficult Erdogan’s AKP is threatened with a serious election defeat in Istanbul

After a highway bridge collapse in Baltimore, adverse conditions hamper recovery efforts. Due to the bad weather and the debris, it has not yet been possible to send divers back into the water, the governor of the US state of Maryland, Wes Moore, told the American broadcaster CNN on Sunday. It is an “incredibly complicated situation.”

On Tuesday night (local time), a container ship rammed a support pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the 1.6-mile-long, four-lane highway bridge to collapse. Several people were killed. The bodies of two men have already been recovered from a pickup truck in seven meters of water, and the search for four missing people is still ongoing. Authorities assume the men are dead. According to the information, the construction workers of Latin American descent were repairing holes in the bridge at the time of the accident.

Since the collision, the steel frame of the bridge has been blocking passage from the Port of Baltimore, and the damaged ship “Dali” also remains at the site of the accident. Work has started to clear the debris field in the water. This includes cutting the massive steel beams of the destroyed bridge and lifting them out of the way using cranes. The aim is to initially build a temporary canal that will allow additional boats to reach the accident site for rescue and clean-up work.

According to the responsible authorities, it will probably take a long time before the port of Baltimore can be reached again. “A ship almost the size of the Eiffel Tower is stuck in the canal and the Key Bridge is on top of it,” Moore pointed out on CNN on Sunday. “So it’s going to be a long road.” (sda/dpa)