Polish mom and son, 7, die after Baltic Sea fall from ferry as homicide investigation launched in Sweden

A mom and her son have died after plunging off a ferry travelling from Sweden to Poland, police have confirmed.

The mom, a Polish nationwide, dived overboard in a determined try to avoid wasting her seven-year-old after he fell off the vessel into the icy Baltic Sea on Thursday.

He is assumed to have fallen from a peak of about 20 metres (65 ft), in keeping with Swedish Maritime Administration spokesman, Jonas Franzen.

NATO ships are mentioned to have been scrambled within the rescue operation, which noticed the pair winched to a helicopter.

They had been transported individually to a hospital in Sweden, however couldn’t be saved, authorities mentioned.

A preliminary homicide investigation has been launched within the wake of the tragedy, Swedish prosecutors introduced on Friday.

However, a suspect has but to be recognized.

Prosecutor Stina Brindmark mentioned: “The investigation aims to clarify what happened.”

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The deaths of the mom and son, who haven’t but been recognized, had been earlier confirmed by Polish police.

A police spokesman, Mariusz Ciarka, mentioned: “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.”

The Stena Spirit ferry departed from Karlskrona in southern Sweden, round 500km (310 miles) from the capital Stockholm.

It was halfway by its journey to Gdynia on the coast of Poland, about 450km (279 miles) north of Warsaw, when the incident occurred, rescue officers mentioned.

Authorities additionally investigating potential ferry malfunction

“At the moment we have no information whether this was due to a malfunction of the ferry,” Stena Line spokesperson Agnieszka Zembrzycka informed Polish information channel, 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 have issued an enchantment to Polish passengers through Poland’s state-run information company PAP asking for data that would clarify how the deaths occurred.