Boy, 7, is killed falling off passenger ferry and his mother die trying and save him

A 7-year-old boy who fell 65ft from a passenger ferry and his mother who jumped in after to try and save him have both died, Swedish authorities have said. 

The Polish mother and son plunged into the Baltic sea from the Stena Spirit ferry as it was travelling from Sweden to Poland yesterday.

An extensive search and rescue operation was launched involving ships and helicopters from Sweden and NATO units in the area also came to their assistance.

The pair were later found and winched by helicopter and rushed to Karlskrona hospital in Sweden.

‘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,’ police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka confirmed today.

Swedish police could not confirm that the mother and child had died. The hospital declined to comment, referring inquiries to the police.

The Swedish ferry, Stena Spirit, was in the Baltic midway through its journey to Gdynia in Poland from Karlskrona in Sweden when the incident occurred, rescue officials said on Thursday.

What brought about the incident remains unknown.

‘At the moment we have no information whether this was due to a malfunction of the ferry,’ Stena Line spokesperson Agnieszka Zembrzycka told TVN 24. 

‘We are cooperating with the police and other authorities that are appointed to explain the causes and circumstances of this event.’

Swedish police issued an appeal to Polish passengers via Poland’s state-run news agency PAP asking for information that could explain how the accident occurred.

Sebastian Kluska, director of the Maritime Search and Rescue Service said the ferry left Gdynia on Thursday at 9 am and headed towards Karlskrona in southern Sweden. At approximately 16.20 information came through about two people who fell from the ferry and emergency services rushed to the scene.