The woman and the seven-year-old child who fell from the passenger ferry Stena Spirit in the Baltic Sea on Thursday afternoon have died, the police say.
It was on Thursday at a quarter past four that the accident occurred. According to initial information, the seven-year-old boy fell into the water and the mother, who is 35 years old, jumped in after him.
At 5:30 p.m., the Norwegian Maritime Administration announced that they had been found in the water after an extensive rescue operation in which, among other things, ships and helicopters from NATO participated.
However, the circumstances surrounding the incident are still unclear.
– We know that two people ended up in the water for unknown reasons. We don’t know why, or how, it could have happened, says Stefan Elfström, communications manager at Stena Line.
– We have started an investigation together with the police where we assist them and try to understand what has happened and what caused this.
Was taken to hospital
Both the mother and the son were taken directly to hospital with unclear injuries, but now the Polish media reports that both have died.
According to the Maritime and Air Rescue Center (JRCC), they should not have been contactable when they were winched out of the water by helicopter.
Cooperates with Polish police
Earlier on Friday morning, the police announced that they had identified the mother and the child as Polish citizens, and that the police in Sweden are therefore continuing the investigation in collaboration with the Polish police.
– We are investigating this and we worked during the evening interrogating the crew of the ship, and we have also spoken to passengers. But if anyone has seen or heard anything about this, we want them to contact us. So far we have not spoken to anyone who saw or heard anything. We are working to map this out, said Jimmy Modin, press spokesperson for the South police region, on Friday morning.
The ferry was on its way from Polish Gdynia to Karlskrona when the incident occurred.
Relatives have been notified.
Later on Friday, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had opened a preliminary investigation into murder after the mother and child were confirmed dead.
There are no suspects in the case.
– The investigation aims to try to clarify what happened, says prosecutor Stina Brindmark at the Prosecutor’s Chamber in Karlskrona in a statement.