Boy, 7, is killed falling off the passenger ferry and his mother dies trying to save him
Boy, 7, dies falling off passenger ferry and his mother dies after jumping in to save him
- The Swedish ferry Stena Spirit was on its way from Sweden to Poland yesterday
A 7-year-old boy who fell 20 meters from a passenger ferry and his mother who jumped in to save him have both died, Swedish authorities have reported.
The Polish mother and son plunged into the Baltic Sea from the Stena Spirit ferry yesterday as it traveled from Sweden to Poland yesterday.
An extensive search and rescue operation involving ships and helicopters from Sweden was launched and NATO units in the area also came to their aid.
The pair were later found and picked up by helicopter and rushed to Karlskrona Hospital in Sweden.
“Unfortunately, we received a message from the Swedish side in the morning that we have to pass on this terrible news to the family, because both the boy and the woman are dead,” police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka confirmed today.
An extensive search and rescue operation was launched involving ships and helicopters from Sweden and NATO units in the area also came to their aid
The Swedish ferry, Stena Spirit, was half way through its journey from Karlskrona in Sweden to Gdynia in Poland in the Baltic Sea (file image shows the ferry)
Swedish police could not confirm that the mother and child had died. The hospital declined to comment and referred to the police.
The Swedish ferry, Stena Spirit, was in the Baltic halfway through its journey from Karlskrona in Sweden to Gdynia in Poland when the incident occurred, rescue officials said Thursday.
What caused the incident is still unknown.
“At the moment we have no information whether this was due to a malfunction of the ferry,” Stena Line spokesman Agnieszka Zembrzycka told TVN 24.
“We are cooperating with the police and other authorities appointed to explain the causes and circumstances of this event.”
The Swedish police, through the Polish state news agency PAP, called on Polish passengers to request information that could explain how the accident happened.
At about 4:20 p.m., information came in about two people who had fallen off the ferry and emergency services rushed to the scene
Sebastian Kluska, a director of the Polish Maritime Search and Rescue Service, said the ferry departed Gdynia at 9am on Thursday and headed for Karlskrona in southern Sweden.
At about 4:20 p.m., information came in about two people who had fallen off the ferry and emergency services rushed to the scene.
The accident occurred in the Swedish SAR service’s area of responsibility, but his Polish team was called in to help, he said.
About five minutes after the broadcast of the message, which was also broadcast by Polish Rescue Radio, the Swedish government and the Swedish Rescue Coordination Center asked for help, he told the news site Fact.pl.
It was the lifeboat crew that found the Polish woman and her son in the water, he added.
Then the family was handed over to rescue helicopters. He also suggested that one of the victims be resuscitated on board the ship and the other immediately flown to hospital.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the emergency services, the boy and his mother died in hospital.