Two people have been killed and several injured after a Mexican navy sailing ship crashed into Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday night, damaging one of New York’s most famous landmarks.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage, but at least 19 people o the ship needed medical treatment after the crash.
Two of the four people who suffered more serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media early Sunday morning.
The cause of the collision was under investigation.
The ship, called the Cuauhtemoc, had been on a global goodwill sailing tour before the incident.
Videos shared online showed the ship swiftly travelling towards the bridge before its three masts struck its main span and snapped one by one.
Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8.20pm local time (1.20am BST) collision.
The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted toward the piers lining the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away.
Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts, but no one fell into the water, officials said.
Witnesses 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.
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.
Just before the collision, Nick Corso, 23, took his phone out to capture the backdrop of the ship and the bridge against a sunset, Instead, he heard what sounded like the loud snapping of a “big twig.” Several more snaps followed.
People in his vicinity began running back and “pandemonium” on the boat erupted, he said. He later saw a handful of people dangling from the mast.
“I didn’t know what to think, I was like, is this a movie?” he said.
The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was an academy training vessel. It said a total of 22 people were injured, 19 of whom needed medical treatment.
The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600ft (490m) main span 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. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.
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Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.
It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.
He said an initial report was that the pilot of the ship had lost power due to a mechanical problem, though officials cautioned that information was preliminary.
Each year, the Cuauhtemoc 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 April 6, the navy said.
It arrived in New York City on May 13, where visitors were welcome for several days, the Mexican consulate said.
The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations over 254 days, 170 of them at sea.
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