Salvors have been preparing small explosives to cut a container ship from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge off Baltimore.

US authorities couched the move as the fastest way to remove a large piece of the bridge that has been on top of the grounded, 9,962-teu Dali (built 2015) since a 26 March casualty that destroyed the span.

Salvors placed small charges on a key location on the bridge section to make precision cuts, which the US Coast Guard described as industry-standard practice for controlled demolition.