Nine hurt as closed steel plant in Baltimore collapses

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (Reuters) - A five-story mill building undergoing demolition at the former Bethlehem Steel plant near Baltimore collapsed on Monday, injuring nine workers, four critically, police said. The workers were inside the Dundalk, Maryland, mill tearing the building down when it collapsed, a spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department told WBAL television. The collapse took place shortly after 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) and the injured people have been taken to hospitals, the spokesman said. Other workers pulled themselves from the rubble. The neighborhood where the collapse occurred, known as Sparrow's Point, was once home to the largest steel mill in the world and employed 31,000 workers. Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. After a series of owners, the site was purchased in 2012 by Hilco SP LLC and by Commercial Development Co Inc, a real estate development company. A spokesman for Hilco declined immediate comment. MCM Industrial Services, of Bloomfield, Mich., which was handling the demolition, also declined to comment. (Reporting by John Clarke and Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)