Washington:

The FBI has launched a criminal investigation into a container ship that hit a major highway bridge in Baltimore last month, causing it to collapse and killing six people, U.S. media reported on Monday.

The Washington Post described it as a “criminal investigation” and cited two unnamed U.S. officials as saying the probe would “at least in part” examine whether the crew knew the ship had serious systemic problems as it left port.

The FBI said in a statement to AFP that as a matter of policy it would not confirm or deny an investigation.

But the company did say its agents were on board the Singapore-flagged Dali container ship, which remains trapped under the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge nearly three weeks after the disaster.

“The FBI is conducting court-authorized law enforcement activities on board the Dali freighter. Without additional public information, we will have no further comment,” it said in a statement on Monday.

The bridge, a major transportation route into the busy city and the Port of Baltimore, was destroyed in seconds on March 26 when the Daly lost power and drifted into its support columns.

The ship managed to send a distress signal moments before the collision, which gave police time to stop traffic on the bridge, potentially saving lives.

But the eight construction crews repairing the potholes on the bridge failed to arrive in time, plunging with tons of concrete and twisted steel into the icy water below.

Two workers were rescued, one was hospitalized briefly and the other was not injured. Two more bodies have been found and four bodies are still missing and are believed to be still trapped beneath the wreckage.

Shipping in and out of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports in the United States, has been halted and the waterway is impassable as debris spreads.

Authorities hope that dismantling the bridge – cutting it into smaller sections and lifting it out – will help rescuers find the bodies of all the victims and eventually reopen the vital waterway.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has also launched an investigation into the disaster.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)