A woman has been confirmed dead after going overboard from a cruise ship in the middle of the night.
The incident took place on October 12 on the Meraviglia-Plus-class cruise ship called the MSC Virtuosa, per BBC News.
The MSC cruise ship - which is 19 decks tall, 1,086ft long, and 141ft wide - was located near the British Channel Islands off the coast of France, say rescue services. It hold accommodation for 6,334 passengers and 1,704 crew.
After an alert was sent out shortly after 2:00AM (BST), a search for a woman in her 20s was underway, with French search and rescue services focusing on an area north of Les Casquets rocks, west of Alderney.
A statement shared to Facebook by the Channel Islands Air Search detailed the attempted rescue operation. It read: "Channel Islands Air Search were called out early this morning and requested to assist Jobourg MRCC in the search for a person overboard from the MSC Virtuosa cruise ship, north of Les Casquets.
"Lions' Pride departed from Guernsey at 0200hrs and set course for the search area.
"The French navy helicopter Rescue Beligou Yankee was also in attendance.
"Arriving on scene at 0221hrs, a search was commenced using the Wescam infra-red camera."
Officials for the Channel Islands Air Search added: "At 0233hrs Jobourg MRCC reported that the casualty had been located by Beligou Yankee approximately 1.5NM north of Lions' Pride and winching operations were in progress.
"Having observed the completion of the winching operation, Lions' Pride was stood down and returned to Guernsey, landing at 0300hrs."
One passenger tells BBC News that an alarm was sounded on the cruise ship three teams - signaling that a person had gone overboard.
The male passenger, identified only as Neil, said passengers were asked to pray for the woman.
"I went up along with lots of other passengers to have a look," Neil said. "About half an hour later the cruise director told us they were looking for a missing passenger so we would be delayed into Southampton."
Sadly, rescue teams confirmed that a casualty was winched from the sea by a helicopter crew and later pronounced dead by doctors.
In response to the tragedy, MSC Cruises released a statement, reading: "A guest on board MSC Virtuosa went overboard on 12 October, while the ship was sailing to Southampton.
"The body was later recovered with the involvement of the authorities.
"We are deeply saddened by this tragic event, and our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time.
"Out of respect for their privacy, we will not be providing further details."
An investigation into the woman's death is now being conducted by French police, with assistance from the UK's Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary.
A statement from the police force read: "It has been reported that the woman went overboard the MSC Virtuosa during the early hours... and subsequently died"
At this time, the cruise ship is berthed at Southampton docks.
Our thoughts go out to everybody impacted by this tragedy.
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