In an incident that has left the world reeling, a young Polish boy of seven and his mother tragically lost their lives after plunging into the freezing Baltic Sea from the Stena Spirit ferry.
Swedish authorities are now pursuing a murder investigation in connection with the fatal event, per Reuters.
The boy plummeted 65ft into the cold Baltic Sea waters from the Stena Spirit ferry, with reports suggesting his mother bravely jumped in after him, presumably in a bid to save him. This harrowing incident unfolded as the ferry was midway through its voyage from Sweden to Poland.
Witnesses on board the vessel looked on in shock as rescue helicopters, including one from a nearby NATO unit, frantically searched the waters for around an hour, desperate to find the pair.
According to a Stena Line official, the mother was located in the icy water 59 minutes after the alarm was raised, and her son was found seven minutes later. They were airlifted to Karlskrona Hospital.
Stina Brindmark, a Swedish prosecutor, announced this afternoon that a preliminary murder investigation has been launched, but no suspect has been identified. Brindmark shared, "The investigation aims to try to clarify what happened," leaving open questions on the investigation's focus on the mother, who was in her mid-thirties.
Brindmark added: "The two people who fell from a ferry traveling to Karlskrona yesterday have died. They are a Polish woman born in 1985 and a Polish boy born in 2016," with police confirming that the next of kin had been notified.
The Swedish ferry, Stena Spirit, was mid-journey to Gdynia in Poland from Karlskrona in Sweden with 310 passengers on board when the tragedy unfolded. The rescue effort involved the ferry's rescue boat, a helicopter from the Swedish Maritime Administration, German helicopters, and an American aircraft from a nearby NATO exercise, as reported by local media.
Stefan Elfström, head of information at Stena Line, revealed to local media, "There were passengers who alerted the crew that two people were missing. Then possessions were found without the people. Then the crew was alerted and surveillance images were checked."
Contrarily, surveillance footage from the ship did not corroborate initial media claims that a boy had fallen into the sea and a woman had jumped in after him, according to Agnieszka Zembrzycka, a Stena Line spokesperson.
Swedish police have called for information from Polish passengers via Poland's state-run news agency PAP, to help unravel the mysterious circumstances of this accident. Jonas Franzen, Swedish Maritime Administration spokesperson, confirmed that the child fell from a height of about 65 feet.
Regrettably, despite the tireless efforts of the emergency responders, both the boy and his mother succumbed to their injuries at the hospital, which declined to comment, directing inquiries to the police.
The Stena Spirit ferry, owned by Stena Line, has been in service since 1988, undergoing a significant refit. This incident recalls a previous accident involving the same ferry in the Polish harbor of Gdynia in 2012, which resulted in injuries to three people.
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