A seven-year-old boy and his mum have died following a tragic incident in the Baltic Sea.
The family had been travelling on a passenger ferry on Thursday when the child reportedly fell overboard.
The 36-year-old woman is believed to have jumped from the ferry in hopes of saving her son. Both had been on the Stena Spirit ferry, travelling from the Polish port of Gdynia to the Swedish port of Karlskrona at the time of the incident.
According to the Mirror, the crew issued a mayday signal and reportedly turned back to where they had fallen. Nato and Sweden launched a desperate search operation with helicopters and nearby ships.
The boy and his mother were airlifted to a hospital in Karlskrona but were pronounced dead a short while later. Both are believed to be Polish citizens, with police spokesperson Mariusz Ciarka telling local media that it was impossible to save the lives of the two.
He said: "Unfortunately, in the morning we received information from the Swedish side that we have to pass on this terrible news to the family, because both the boy and the woman are dead."
The boy fell from a height of about 20 meters – 65 feet – off the Stena Line ferry, it has been reported.
Stena Line spokesperson Agnieszka Zembrzycka told TVN 24: "At the moment we have no information whether this was due to a malfunction of the ferry. We are cooperating with the police and other authorities that are appointed to explain the causes and circumstances of this event."
Anders Olsson, who helped pull the woman from the sea, told radio outlets on Friday that she was ‘not responsive’ and first aid was administered to her. Swedish police issued an appeal to Polish passengers via Poland’s state-run news agency PAP asking for information that could explain how the accident occurred.
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