Two dead as Mexican Navy ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge

Two people have been killed and at least 19 others injured after a tall Mexican Navy training sailing ship crashed into New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, the city mayor has said.

Eric Adams said the Cuauhtémoc lost power before the collision on Saturday evening. US officials said 277 people were on board the vessel, which was on a goodwill visit.

Footage shows the Cuauhtémoc’s towering masts clipping the bridge as the ship was passing under the famous structure on Saturday evening.

Crew members were standing on the masts at the time of collision, authorities said, which all snapped and fell to the deck.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on X that two people died and 19 were injured, two of whom were in critical condition. A total of 277 people were on board.

Brooklyn Bridge did not suffer any major damage and was reopened after a preliminary inspection.

Police said they believed “mechanical issues” and a power cut had caused the ship to collide with one of the pillars of the bridge.

The New York Coast Guard said the Cuauhtémoc lost all three masts and all personnel on the ship had been accounted for. No one had fallen in the water.

Crowds fled from the water’s edge as the masts collided with the bridge.

There was “panic on the ship”, said Brooklyn resident Nick Corso, who was standing nearby.

He told AFP there was “lots of screaming, some sailors hanging from the masts”.

Another witness, Kelvin Flores, told the BBC he was at work when he saw the crash.

He came out into the street to find a lot of “commotion and a lot of chaos” with fire engines and police trying to reach the scene but the roads clogged with traffic.

“Just seeing the actual damage was insane,” he said. “People carrying stretchers… they were trying to get the injured out.”

New York police told residents to avoid the area of Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Seaport in Manhattan, and Dumbo in Brooklyn.

“Expect heavy traffic and a large presence of emergency vehicles in the surrounding area,” the city police department said on X.

The Cuauhtémoc was later towed away.

The vessel, which measures 297 feet long (91m) and 40 feet (12m) wide, according to the Mexican navy, sailed for the first time in 1982.

Each year it sets sail at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.

This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco on 6 April, the navy said. Its final destination was intended to be Iceland.

Reuters said its 45m (147ft) masts were too tall to clear the arched bridge, which is listed on the New York transport department’s website as having a 135ft clearance at its centre.