Father of three among victims on the bridge

Six people, including a father of three originally from El Salvador, are now presumed dead after a container ship hit Baltimore’s iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The US Coast Guard said late on Tuesday that it had concluded the men had died and intended to suspend its massive search and rescue effort.

All are believed to be members of a crew working on the bridge and are citizens of Latin American countries.

Little information has been released about their identities, but here’s what we know so far.

Boats and helicopters have been taking part in a huge operation to search for the six missing people. Two others have been pulled from the water on Tuesday, with one in a serious condition.

Local media has reported that the six workers were citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

One of the missing workers from El Salvador was identified as Miguel Luna by the non-profit organization Casa, which provides services to the immigrant community in Baltimore.

“He is a husband, a father of three, and has called Maryland his home for over 19 years,” Casa executive director Gustavo Torres said in a statement.

Marvin Luna, son of Miguel Luna, told the Washington Post that he knew his father was on the bridge overnight but did not know it had collapsed until friends called him and said: “The bridge is gone.”

Honduras’s migrant protection service has identified a second victim as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval.

El Heraldo, a Honduran newspaper, has reported that he was from Santa Barbara department in the country’s west.

Mr Sandoval’s brother told NBC News that the family was informed of his disappearance just hours after the bridge collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“The hope we have is to be able to see the body,” Mr Suazo’s brother was quoted as saying. “We want to see him, find him, know whether he is dead, because we don’t know anything.”

Some of Mr Suazo’s family members paid tribute to him on social media as news emerged that he was among the missing.

“I can’t believe this Maynor, that Friday would be the last time I saw you,” one woman wrote in Spanish on Facebook. “I will always remember you.”

Guatemala’s foreign affairs ministry has also confirmed that two of the workers were Guatemalan nationals, from the regions of Petén and Chiquimula, but has not yet named them.

The six men were employed by Brawner Builders, a local contractor that carries out maintenance work on bridges in Maryland state.

Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for the company and knows members of the crew, said he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks.

“I know that a month ago, I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass,” Mr Campos told the Associated Press.

“Imagine knowing that is falling. It is so hard. One would not know what to do.”

“They were wonderful family people,” Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice-president of Brawner Builders, told the New York Times, adding that the six men had “spouses, children”.

“It’s just a very, very bad day.”

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