6 Construction Workers Missing After Bridge Collapse as Officials Say They've Found 5 Submerged Vehicles

Photo:JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

More than nine hours after theFrancis Scott Key Bridge collapsein Baltimore, six construction workers remain missing, authorities said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

The U.S. Coast Guard and additional agencies are searching the Patapsco River for the members of a road repair crew who were working on the span when a container ship hit the 1,200-foot-long bridge, Paul J. Wiedefeld, Maryland’s transportation secretary, said.

Two others were rescued, including one individual who was transported to a local hospital, Wiedefeld said.

Meanwhile, five vehicles have been found in the water, including three passenger vehicles, a cement truck and another vehicle of undetermined nature,Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace told CNN.

As many as eight dive teams are involved in the search, he said.

“It’s the dynamic of an incident like this, operating in a space of uncertainty, it just makes things very difficult,” Wallace said. “Add darkness to it, it becomes dangerous.”

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Wiedefeld added that members of the construction crew were working on filling potholes on the bridge at the moment of the collapse.

The crew halted traffic onto the bridge after they received reports of a mayday call from the ship, which had apparently lost power, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.

“These people are heroes,” Moore said.

source: people.com