A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday night, snapping its three masts, fatally injuring two crew members and leaving some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage but at least 19 people about the ship needed medical treatment after the crash.

Two of the four people who suffered more serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media early on Sunday morning (local time).

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The cause of the collision was under investigation.

In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the ship, called the Cuauhtemoc, could be seen traveling swiftly toward the bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River.

Then, its three masts struck the bridge's main span and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving.

Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8.20pm collision.

The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted toward the piers lining the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away.

Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, remarkably, no one fell into the water, officials said.

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.

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.

Just before the collision, Nick Corso, 23, took his phone out to capture the backdrop of the ship and the bridge against a sunset.

Instead, he heard what sounded like the loud snapping of a "big twig." Several more snaps followed.

People in his vicinity began running back and "pandemonium" on the boat erupted, he said.

He later saw a handful of people dangling from the mast.

"I didn't know what to think, I was like, is this a movie?" he said.

The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was an academy training vessel.

It said a total of 22 people were injured, 19 of whom needed medical treatment.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (490-meter) main span 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. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

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Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.

It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.

He said an initial report was that the pilot of the ship had lost power due to a mechanical problem, though officials cautioned that information was preliminary.

Videos show a tugboat was close to the Cuauhtemoc at the time of the crash.

The Cuauhtemoc — about 90.5 meters long and 12 meters wide, according to the Mexican navy — sailed for the first time in 1982.

The vessel's main mast has a height of 48.9 meters, according to the Mexican government.

As midnight approached, the broken boat was moved slowly up the East River, going under and past the Manhattan Bridge, aided by a series of tugboats, before docking at a pier.

Onlookers continued to gather on the waterfront to watch the spectacle.

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Each year the ship 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.

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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.

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Police believe three offenders assaulted the man, fled from Favona in vehicle about 9.30pm

An ex-police officer threatened to dig up the victim’s deceased mum.

It comes after a manhunt for 44-year-old Michael Kane McRae.

The Government caused quite a stir when it announced money would be paid out of the fund.

The mother of a Sydney man missing for two and a half months has issued an emotional plea for information, as speculation mounts he may have met with foul play.

Jayden Harwood, a 20-year-old father of two, was last seen walking down Sackville Street in Ingleburn on March 1, while staying at his girlfriend's parents' place.

Witnesses claimed he was going door to door asking for help, before borrowing a phone to call his stepfather.

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His mother, Alanai-Brie Wallace, told 9News that in their final conversation with Jayden, he had said he'd been attacked and bashed, and needed directions back to his partner's parents' place.

Jayden was initially labelled a missing person, but 9News tonight revealed his disappearance is now being investigated by detectives and thought to be suspicious.

Wallace said she was "100 per cent" sure somebody knows what happened to Jayden.

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"I need my son back, I need my baby back," she said.

"I need to know what's happened, why he's not here."

The community in Sydney's south-west is also seeking answers.

Community volunteer Brittany Wells has been part of a group of locals who spend a lot of their weekend putting up posters and doorknocking for any potential information – despite not knowing Jayden personally.

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"He's a real person, he's got family that love him, children that love him, and he's wanted and needed," she said.

Despite extensive searches through surrounding streets and bushland, Jayden has not been found.

His bank accounts have been untouched and his phone switched off.

"My son isn't here with me and with his daughter on her first birthday, because somebody or some people have made him unable to be," Wallace said.

Detectives have spoken to several persons of interest.

Wallace urged anybody who knew anything to "please, please come forward".

"I just want my boy home," she said.

Anybody with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.

An explosion killed a person and heavily damaged a fertility clinic on Saturday in the upscale California city of Palm Springs in what the FBI characterised as an "intentional act of terrorism".

Akil Davis, the head of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in the evening that the clinic was deliberately targeted, while declining to elaborate on how authorities have reached a conclusion on a motive.

Authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the person who died at the scene. Davis would not directly say whether that person was the suspect but said authorities were not searching for a suspect.

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Davis also said four people were hurt but provided no additional details on the severity of the injuries.

Authorities were also investigating the possibility that the explosion was being livestreamed.

The FBI said it was sent investigators, including bomb technicians, to the scene.

Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said in a statement that the blast "appears to be an intentional act of violence" and several buildings were damaged, some severely.

"There has been one fatality, the person's identity is not known," Mills said.

The act was being investigated as a possible car explosion, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss preliminary information from an ongoing investigation.

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One of the officials told AP that investigators believe the person who died was likely the person who set off the explosion, but they cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal agents were working to learn more, adding, "Let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable".

The FBI's Los Angeles field office said via the social platform X that "investigators, bomb technicians & an evidence response team" were among assets that were deployed. Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also assisting.

The city of Palm Springs said the explosion happened at 11 am and residents were asked to avoid the area around North Indian Canyon Drive near East Tachevah Drive.

Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic, confirmed that his facility was damaged. He told AP in a phone interview that all staffers were safe and accounted for. The explosion damaged the practice's office space, where it conducts consultations with patients, but the IVF lab and the stored embryos were spared.

"I really have no clue what happened," Abdallah said. "Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients."

Aerial video showed a burned-out car in a parking lot behind the building that housed the fertility clinic's office space. The blast caved in the roof and blew a wide debris field across a sidewalk and four lanes of the street on the other side of the structure.

Rhino Williams, 47, said he was chatting with customers at a restaurant he helps manage inside the Skylark Hotel just over a block away when he heard a huge boom. Everything rattled, Williams said, and he sprinted to the scene to see if anyone was in need of help.

Williams saw a large dark grey plume of smoke and covered his nose with his shirt as he smelled burning plastic and rubber. He said he saw a building had "blown out" into the street, with bricks and debris scattered everywhere, and he spotted a car's front axle on fire in the parking lot.

He said it was the only car in the lot that he saw. He ran into the building, calling out and peering behind the counter to see if anyone was inside. He did not hear a response and did not see anyone behind the counter.

Williams then ran around to check on other buildings. Multiple windows of the neighbouring liquor store were also blown out, he said. Once he saw authorities arrive, he headed back to the hotel.

Nima Tabrizi, 37, of Santa Monica, said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.

"The building just shook, and we go outside and there's massive cloud smoke," Tabrizi said. "Crazy explosion. It felt like a bomb went off. … We went up to the scene, and we saw human remains."

Palm Springs is about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles. Its known for upscale resorts, golf courses and a history of celebrity residents.

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The customer did not pay to dump its rubbish on 71 occasions.

The Prime Minister made the pre-Budget health announcement in Botany this afternoon.

At least 27 people have been killed by storms systems that swept across part of the US Midwest and South, with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announcing on Saturday that 18 of the deaths came in his state and 10 others were hospitalised in critical condition.

A devastating tornado in Kentucky damaged homes, tossed vehicles and left many people homeless. Seventeen of the deaths were in Laurel County, located in the state's south-east, and one was in Pulaski County: Fire Department Major Roger Leslie Leatherman, a 39-year veteran who was fatally injured while responding to the deadly weather.

Parts of two dozen state roads were closed, and some could take days to reopen, Beshear said. He also said the death toll could still rise.

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"We need the whole world right now to be really good neighbours to this region," the governor said.

State Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson said hundreds of homes were damaged,

Kayla Patterson, her husband and their five children huddled in a tub in their basement in London, the county seat, as the tornado raged around them.

"You could literally hear just things ripping in the distance, glass shattering everywhere, just roaring like a freight train," she recalled on Saturday.

"It was terrible."

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The family eventually emerged to the sounds of sirens and panicked neighbors. While the family's own home was spared, others right behind it were demolished, Patterson said as the sound of power tools buzzed in the background. The neighborhood was dotted with piles of lumber, metal sheeting, insulation and stray belongings – a suitcase, a sofa, some six-packs of paper towels.

Rescuers were searching for survivors all night and into the morning, the sheriff's office said. An emergency shelter was set up at a local high school and donations of food and other necessities were arriving.

The National Weather Service hadn't yet confirmed that a tornado struck, but meteorologist Philomon Geertson said it was likely. It ripped across the largely rural area and extended to the London Corbin Airport shortly before midnight.

Resident Chris Cromer said he got the first of two tornado alerts on his phone around 11.30pm (1.30pm AEST) or so, about a half-hour before the tornado struck. He and his wife grabbed their dog, jumped in their car and scrambled to the crawlspace at a relative's nearby home because the couple's own crawlspace is small.

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"We could hear and feel the vibration of the tornado coming through," said Cromer, 46. A piece of his roof was ripped off, and windows were broken, but homes around his were destroyed.

"It's one of those things that you see on the news in other areas, and you feel bad for people – then, when it happens, it's just surreal," he said.

"It makes you be thankful to be alive, really."

The storm was the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and submerged roads. Hundreds of people were rescued, and most of the deaths were caused by vehicles getting stuck in high water.

A storm in late 2021 spawned tornadoes that killed 81 people and leveled portions of towns in western Kentucky. The following summer, historic floodwaters inundated parts of eastern Kentucky, leaving dozens more dead.

Missouri pounded by storms, with deaths confirmed in St Louis

About 1200 tornadoes strike the US annually, and they have been reported in all 50 states over the years. Researchers found in 2018 that deadly tornadoes were happening less frequently in the traditional "Tornado Alley" of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and more frequently in parts of the more densely populated and tree-filled mid-South area.

The latest Kentucky storms were part of a weather system Friday that killed seven in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said. The system also spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, brought a punishing heat wave to Texas and temporarily enveloped parts of Illinois – including Chicago – in a pall of dust on an otherwise sunny day.

"Well that was…..something," the weather service's Chicago office wrote on X after issuing its first-ever dust storm warning for the city. Thunderstorms in central Illinois had pushed strong winds over dry, dusty farmland and northward into the Chicago area, the weather agency said.

In Missouri, St Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said five people died, 38 were injured and more than 5000 homes were affected in her city.

"The devastation is truly heartbreaking," she said at a news conference Saturday. An overnight curfew was to continue in the most damaged neighborhoods.

Weather service radar indicated a likely tornado touched down between 2.30pm and 2.50pm in Clayton, Missouri, in the St Louis area. The apparent tornado touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the St Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World's Fair and Olympic Games the same year.

Three people needed aid after part of the Centennial Christian Church crumbled, St. Louis Fire Battalion Chief William Pollihan told The Associated Press.

Stacy Clark said his mother-in-law, Patricia Penelton, died in the church. He described her as a very active church volunteer who had many roles, including being part of the choir.

John Randle said he and his girlfriend were at the St Louis Art Museum during the storm and were hustled into the basement with about 150 other people.

"You could see the doors flying open, tree branches flying by and people running," said Randle, 19.

At the St Louis Zoo, falling trees severely damaged the roof of a butterfly facility. Staffers quickly corralled most of the butterflies, the zoo said on social media, and a conservatory in suburban Chesterfield is caring for the displaced creatures.

A tornado struck in Scott County, about 209km south of St Louis, killing two people, injuring several others and destroying multiple homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.

Forecasters say severe weather could batter parts of the Plains

The weather service said that supercells are likely to develop across parts of Texas and Oklahoma Saturday afternoon before becoming a line of storms in south-west Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas on Saturday night.

The biggest risks include large to very large hail that could be up to 8.9cm in size, damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes.

These conditions were expected to continue on Sunday across parts of the central and southern Plains as well as parts of the central High Plains.

"Be prepared to take action if watches and warnings are issued for your area," the weather service said.