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Baltic Sea ferry »Stena Spirit«, picture from 2015
Photo: ZUMA Press / IMAGO
A mother and her seven-year-old son went overboard on Thursday on the Baltic Sea ferry "Stena Spirit". Both were rescued from the water after an hour and taken by helicopter to a hospital. However, they were pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
The course of events of the fatal fall was initially puzzled. Now the Danish Maritime Maritime Accident Commission announced that it was not an accident. The investigators had come to the conclusion after reviewing surveillance footage that it was a deliberate act, it said on Monday from the authority.
In doing so, the Commission confirmed a report by the Swedish radio station P4 Blekinge. The boy and his mother were both Polish citizens. However, since the ferry sails under the Danish flag, it was investigated there. The investigation was closed.
Mother and son had fallen from the ship about halfway between Gdansk in Poland and Karlskrona in southern Sweden in the Baltic Sea. Initially, it was said that the child had fallen into the water and the mother jumped after it.
Later, it was reported in the Polish media that both had gone overboard at the same time. A spokeswoman for the district prosecutor's office in Gdansk had told the dpa on Saturday that the "murder of a child and suicide of the mother" was being investigated. She did not give any further details.
ala/dpa