Baltimore Key Bridge collapse live: Temporary channels to open amid warning of ‘national economic catastrophe’

Baltimore officials have opened a temporary shipping route around the wreckage of the Francis Key Scott Key Bridge in a bid to get trade and movement of goods in and out of the port up and running as soon as possible.

Captain David O’Connell described this as “an important first step along the road to reopening the port of Baltimore”. A second temporary route for deeper vessels will open in the oncoming days, officials said.

The first section of the collapsed bridge was removed from the Patapsco River over the weekend, marking an important step towards removing the wreckage and getting the crucial port back up and running.

After removing a 200-tonne segment, workers are now focusing on lifting a 350-tonne section of the bridge while leaving the crumpled part resting on the bow of the Dali container ship. Meanwhile, parts of the wreckage have reportedly been discovered on nearby beaches.

The progress comes after Maryland Governor Wes Moore warned the disaster is a “national economic catastrophe” that may have a wide-ranging impact on the US economy.

“People have to remember this is not a Baltimore catastrophe, not a Maryland catastrophe,” he told CNN on Sunday.

A Baltimore baker who drove over the Francis Scott Key Bridge seconds before its collapse, says he had been blissfully unaware of the catastrophe until receiving a call from a panicked co-worker.

Larry Desantis told the Baltimore Banner that despite being in the immediate vicinity he had not heard the container ship collide with the bridge because he had been playing his car radio loudly.

Mr Desantis, head baker at Herman’s Bakery in Dundalk, had been travelling on his regular commute in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

According to theBanner, he had made it