New York City mayor says 19 people injured as ship strikes Brooklyn Bridge

The New York City mayor says 19 people were injured, four seriously, when a Mexican tall ship struck the Brooklyn Bridge.

The top of its three masts slammed into the iconic span and partially collapsed as the boat floated in the East River.

In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the masts could be seen snapping and partially collapsing as they crashed into the deck of the bridge. Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the collision.

The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag, then drifted towards the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.

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 and one of its masts snap. Looking closer, they saw someone dangling 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,” Ms Katz said.

They said they saw two people removed from the ship on stretchers onto smaller boats.

The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in an accident with the Brooklyn Bridge that prevented it from continuing its voyage.

It added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said on X that its ambassador to the US and officials from the Mexican consulate in New York were in contact with local authorities to provide assistance to “the affected cadets”, but it did not mention injuries.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot main span that is 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, and its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

The Cuauhtemoc — about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide, according to the Mexican Navy — sailed for the first time in 1982.

Each year it 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 with 277 people onboard, the Navy said.

The Mexican consulate said on May 13 on X that the Cuauhtemoc, also called the “Ambassador and Knight of the Seas”, arrived that day and docked at pier 17.

It invited people to visit it through May 17.

The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.

It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days, 170 of them at sea.