Dozens of cargo containers fall off vessel at Port of Long Beach

At least 50 shipping containers slipped off a vessel at the Port of Long Beach Tuesday morning, leaving officials scrambling to determine what happened.

Port spokesperson Art Marroquin said the ship, the Mississippi, was berthed at Terminal G just before 9 a.m. when the containers mysteriously fell overboard into the nearby water.

Marroquin and other port officials did not respond to questions about the ship. They confirmed, however, that no injuries were reported and all operations have been temporarily suspended as responders work to secure the containers.

Port officials are in the preliminary stages of investigating what caused the incident.

An online site dedicated to tracking ships says the Mississippi flies under a Portuguese flag and was last docked in China two weeks ago.

The incident happened only four days after the port was named the Best West Coast seaport in North America for a seventh-straight year by the trade publication Asia Cargo News.

The port handles more than 9 million 20-foot containers per year from 2,000 vessels, moving one-fourth of all containers on the West Coast.