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LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

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Six workers presumed dead

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Search and rescue operations suspended

(Adds details, quotes from latest news briefing)

By Andy Sullivan, Joseph Campbell and Gabriella Borter

BALTIMORE, March 26 (Reuters) - Six workers were missing

and presumed dead from a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore

Harbor early on Tuesday after a massive cargo ship crippled by a

power loss rammed into the structure, forcing the closure of one

of the busiest ports on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

With dive teams facing increasingly treacherous conditions

in the darkened, wreckage-strewn waters, active

search-and-rescue operations were suspended about 18 hours after

the accident, U.S. Coast Guard and Maryland State Police

officials said.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said there was no

hope of finding the missing workers alive due to the frigid

water and the length of time elapsed since the accident.

State Police Colonel Roland Butler said authorities hoped to

return divers to the water after sunrise on Wednesday in an

effort to recover the workers' remains.

The Singapore-flagged container vessel named Dali, heading

out of Baltimore Harbor bound for Sri Lanka, plowed into a

support pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the mouth of

the Patapsco River at about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT).

A trestled section of the of the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) span

almost immediately crumpled into the icy water, sending vehicles

and people into the river.

Rescuers pulled two survivors to safety, one of whom was

hospitalized. They and the six missing were part of a work crew

filling potholes on the road surface of the bridge, officials

said earlier.

BIGGER DISASTER AVERTED

The ship reported a power failure before impact, which

enabled officials to stop traffic on the bridge before the

collapse.

"By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge,

these people are heroes. They saved lives last night," Maryland

Governor Wes Moore said at a midday news briefing. The bridge

was up to code with no known structural issues, Moore said.

There was no evidence of foul play, officials said.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott described a scene of twisted

metal shooting into the sky.

"It was something out of an action movie. It was something

you never thought you'd see," he said.

Video footage on social media showed the vessel slamming

into the bridge in darkness, the headlights of vehicles visible

on the span as it crashed into the water and the ship caught

fire.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said closure of

one of the country's busiest shipping lanes until further notice

would have a "major and protracted impact to supply chains." The

Port of Baltimore handles more automobile cargo than any other

U.S. port - more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to

port data.

General Motors ( GM ) and Ford Motor ( F ) will reroute

affected shipments, but the companies said the disruption would

be minimal.

The 948-foot (288.95 m) vessel had experienced a momentary

loss of propulsion and dropped anchors as part of emergency

procedures before impact, its management company, Synergy Marine

Pte Ltd reported, according to the Singapore Port Authority.

The Dali, owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, rammed into one of

the pillars of the bridge, according Synergy. All 22 crew

members aboard the vessel were accounted for, it said.

Besides impacts to auto shipments, the port closure could

force shippers to divert Baltimore-bound cargo from containers

to bulk material. It could create bottlenecks and increase

delays and costs on the Eastern seaboard, experts say.

President Joe Biden said the U.S. Coast Guard responded

quickly to the mayday call and commended the fast action of

Maryland transportation officials who closed the bridge before

it was struck.

Biden promised to visit Baltimore, 40 miles (64 km) away, as

soon as possible and said he wanted the federal government to

pay to rebuild the bridge.

"I'm directing my team to move heaven and Earth to reopen

the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,"

Biden said. The bridge, named for the author of the

Star-Spangled Banner, opened in 1977.

'SHOCKING SIGHT'

National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy

said a team of 24 investigators and other agency personnel were

on the scene but held off boarding the ship during

search-and-rescue operations. She said personnel from Singapore

safety agencies would arrive in Baltimore on Wednesday.

Jayme Krause, 32, was working a night shift on shore when

the cart of packages in front of her shook violently in what

sounded like an intense thunderstorm.

A co-worker at an Amazon logistics facility told her the

bridge had collapsed and she ran out to look.

"I went over there, and sure as anything, it was gone, the

whole bridge was just like, there was nothing there," she told

Reuters. "It was a shocking sight to see."

The bridge serves as the main thoroughfare for motorists

between New York and Washington seeking to avoid downtown

Baltimore. It was one of three ways to cross the harbor, with a

traffic volume of 31,000 vehicles per day, or 11.3 million a

year.

The same ship was involved in an incident in the port of

Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit

the North Sea container terminal.

An inspection in 2023 carried out in San Antonio,Chile,

found "propulsion and auxiliary machinery" deficiencies,

according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides

information on ships.

Tuesday's disaster may be the worst U.S. bridge collapse

since 2007, when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into

the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.

The Dali was chartered by shipping company Maersk

at the time of the incident, the Danish company

said in a statement.

More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore port including

small cargo ships, tug boats and pleasure craft, data from ship

tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic showed.

At least 30 other ships had signalled their destination was

Baltimore, the data showed.