As of: March 27, 2024, 8:48 a.m
By: Karolin Schaefer
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A highway bridge collapses in Baltimore.
A diving team is constantly searching for survivors in the water.
They don't have much time left.
Baltimore – A bridge has partially collapsed in the port city of Baltimore in the US state of Maryland on the Atlantic coast.
The four-lane highway bridge was rammed by a container ship.
A video shows the serious collision.
As
CNN
reported, about 20 people are still in the water.
But how much time does the diving team have to search for the survivors?
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed.
© Harford County Fire & EMS/imago
Bridge collapsed in Baltimore: Sudden immersion in ice water is life-threatening
Two people are said to have been rescued from the water after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed.
According to the fire department, one person is in critical condition.
The other missing people don't have much time left if they find themselves in the icy water in the Patapsco River.
Temperatures in Baltimore are just around 6 degrees Celsius in the early morning hours.
If you suddenly immerse yourself in ice-cold water, a life-threatening shock can occur in the first one to three minutes, according to the German Life Saving Society.
There is an increase in breathing frequency and depth.
This means that the time in which one's breath can be held is extremely shortened.
At the same time, blood pressure and heart rate increase and the blood vessels constrict.
Within the next 30 minutes, the performance of the muscle and nerve cells decreases, it goes on to say.
“Swimming movements in the already viscous cold water” are then uncoordinated.
It is hardly possible to hold on to anything anymore.
Bridge disaster in Baltimore: Survivors only have a few hours
So the rescuers hardly have any time left.
A map shows where the rescue operation is underway.
CNN
meteorologist Derek Van Dam estimated survival time at about one to three hours in water temperatures between 4 and 10 degrees
.
“We are almost 5 hours into this event,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The icy water would remove heat from the body up to four times faster than cold air.
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There were initially no reports of deaths or other injuries.
It is also still unclear how many vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
The bridge spans the Port of Baltimore and is more than 1.5 miles long, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation.
(kas/dpa)