A child is said to have fallen from the passenger ship “Stena Spirit” into the Baltic Sea (archive photo) Photo: picture alliance/dpa
By Natasha Altendorf
This rescue came too late!
The passenger ship “Stena Spirit” was en route from the Polish port city of Gdynia (Gdynia) to Karlskrona in Sweden when she sounded the alarm at 4:20 p.m.
A seven-year-old child fell into the water from the Stena Spirit ferry operated by the Stena Line ferry company on Thursday, rescue leader Anders Lännholm told the Swedish news agency TT. The mother then jumped after the child, Lännholm continued. Both are Polish citizens.
A major rescue operation was initiated immediately. The rescuers searched for the two with helicopters and boats for over an hour. The German frigate “Mecklenburg-Vorpommern” with two helicopters on board also drove to the scene of the accident.
Finally they discovered mother and child in the sea and recovered the lifeless bodies. According to the information, in addition to rescue helicopters and the ferry itself, NATO forces who were nearby for an exercise should have helped with the search.
︎ Both people are said to have been pulled out of the Baltic Sea by helicopter and taken directly to the hospital. A spokesman for the authorities told the Swedish broadcaster SVT. Unfortunately, neither the child nor the mother could be helped anymore. They died in the terrible accident on the high seas.
The Stena Spirit is a passenger ship owned by the Swedish shipping company Stena Line. The ship has a maximum capacity of 1700 passengers and 570 cars. The ship is currently operating on the Sweden-Poland ferry route from Karlskrona to Gdynia with a crossing time of ten hours.