The vessel experienced power failure around 8.20pm while the captain was trying to navigate, causing it to drift toward the bridge’s pillar, and subsequently, the ship’s mast hit the bridge, said New York Police Department Chief Wilson Aramboles during a Saturday news briefing.

Footage captures the Cuauhtémoc’s mast striking and breaking as it passes beneath the bridge, with fragments falling onto the ship’s deck.

No visible damage could be seen on the bridge itself, which was open to traffic on Saturday night after shuttering briefly.

There were sailors on the bridge’s mast who were injured, Aramboles said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said 19 people were injured, including four with serious injuries.

The Mexican Navy noted 22 were hurt in a post in Spanish on X, with 19 receiving medical attention at local hospitals.

“The status of the personnel and material is under review by naval and local authorities, who are providing support,” the Mexican Navy said.

The ship was on a training cruise, which takes place every year, Mexican Navy spokesman Capt. Juan Caballero told CNN.

All lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge were briefly closed in both directions after the incident but had reopened as of 10.30pm, according to New York emergency officials.

“While inspections will remain ongoing, there are no signs of structural damage to the Brooklyn Bridge at this time,” according to Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for Adams.

NYPD told residents to avoid the area of Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Seaport in Manhattan, and Dumbo in Brooklyn.

“Expect heavy traffic and a large presence of emergency vehicles in the surrounding area,” police said on X.

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 from 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,” Katz said.

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

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 490-metre 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 90.5 metres long and 12 metres 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 then.

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.