Two people died and 19 others were injured after a Mexican Navy training ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday.
The ship snapped all three of its masts as it collided with the New York City landmark late on Saturday, while onlookers enjoying the balmy spring evening watched in horror.
“At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries,” Adams posted on X.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Footage shared online showed the Mexican Navy ship Cuauhtemoc, its sails furled and festive lights draped in its rigging, as it tried to pass beneath the bridge, which sheared off the masts and sent them crashing into the East River.
Hundreds of cheering spectators had gathered minutes earlier to bid farewell to the ship, which had been docked at a pier in southern Manhattan since Tuesday last week.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement that two crew members died in the crash, with a further 22 injured — half of them critically.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X that she was “deeply saddened” by the two crew members’ deaths.
The ship lost power at about 8:20pm while the captain was maneuvering the vessel, forcing it to head for the bridge abutment on the Brooklyn side, New York Police Department Chief of Special Operations Wilson Aramboles told a news conference.
Several sailors at the top of the ship were injured when it crashed into the bridge, Aramboles said.
It is not clear if these sailors are among the dead.
There was “panic on the ship,” said Brooklyn resident Nick Corso, 23, who was standing near the water.
He had been poised to take a photo, but when he realized what was happening he switched to video.
“Lots of screaming, some sailors hanging from the masts, looked like panic happening on the ship,” he said.
“I didn’t see anyone fall into the water, but lots of people up top. People ran back and were screaming,” he said. “The one thing that stood out to me was the panic on the ship, and there was a guy at the back waving for people to move away from the walkway we were on.”
The Mexican Navy said in its statement that no one had fallen into the water, and that no rescue operation had been launched.
The ship had been departing New York at the time and flags also fluttered in the rigging, while an enormous Mexican flag waved off its stern.
Seconds after the ship left the dock, “suddenly we saw all the lights, how they collided, hit the bridge, and they [the sailors] all fell down,” said Arturo Acatitla, a 37-year-old New York resident.
“While inspections will remain ongoing, there are no signs of structural damage to the Brooklyn Bridge,” the New York Department of Transportation posted on X.
The bridge which leads from Brooklyn into Manhattan was closed for about 40 minutes before reopening.
Victims were taken to hospital, Mexican Ambassador to the US Esteban Moctezuma Barragan told a news conference, and sirens could be heard near the scene.
The Cuauhtemoc, a barque built in 1982 which had a mast height of 48.2m, was sailing to Iceland when it crashed, Aramboles said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS