A young 7-year-old boy tragically died after he fell overboard off a ferry. His mother also died after diving into the Baltic sea after him in hopes of saving her child.
Lars Blom, chief of rescue operations at the Swedish Maritime Administration rescue centre, said: “First we received a report that one person had fallen overboard, then it turned out to be two.”
Both had been on the Stena Spirit ferry, travelling from the Polish port of Gdynia to the Swedish port of Karlskrona.
The boy fell off the vessel on Thursday and local authorities said the mother jumped overboard in an attempted rescue, however, both sadly died.
The crew issued a distress signal and reportedly changed course to return to the location where the boy fell.
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The incident launched a huge search and rescue operation as ships and helicopters from Sweden and NATO units rushed to the scene.
After being found, the 36-year-old mother and her son were airlifted separately to a hospital in Karlskrona, Sweden.
Anders Olsson, a crew member on the rescue helicopter that retrieved the woman from the sea, stated during an interview with Swedish radio that she was unresponsive.
Now, Polish police have announced the tragic news that both have died.
Police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka 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.”
Reports suggest that the boy fell approximately 20 metres (65 feet) from the Stena Line ferry.
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.”