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A Mexican navy sailing ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday during a promotional tour in New York City, the top of its mast brushing the iconic span as it sailed through the East River.
New York City mayor Eric Adams said 19 people were injured in the incident, four seriously.
In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, three masts of the ship could be seen snapping and partially collapsing as they crashed into the deck of the bridge. Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the collision. The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag, then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtémoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in an accident with the Brooklyn Bridge that prevented it from continuing its voyage. It added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
“The secretary of the navy renews its commitment to the safety of personnel, transparency in its operations and excellent training for future officers of the Mexican Armada,” it said in Spanish.
Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz told the Associated Press they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge and one of its masts snap. Looking closer, they saw someone dangling from high on the ship.
“We saw someone dangling, and I couldn’t tell if it was just blurry or my eyes, and we were able to zoom in on our phone and there was someone dangling from the harness from the top for like at least like 15 minutes before they were able to rescue them,” Katz said.
They said they saw two people removed from the ship on stretchers onto smaller boats.
The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (490 metres) main span that is supported by two masonry towers. More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross every day, according to the city’s transportation department, and its walkway is a major tourist attraction.
The Cuauhtémoc – about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide (90.5 metres long and 12 metres wide), according to the Mexican navy – sailed for the first time in 1982. Each year it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.
This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the Mexican navy said.
The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.
It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days – 170 at sea and 84 in port.
