A seven-year-old boy has died after falling overboard off a passenger ferry in the Baltic Sea.

His mother, who jumped in after in a desperate attempt to rescue him, also has lost her life.

The child fell into the water on Thursday and the mother decided to jump in after him, said a Swedish Maritime Administration spokesperson.

Both had been on the Stena Spirit ferry, travelling from the Polish port of Gdynia to the Swedish port of Karlskrona.

Crew issued a mayday signal and reportedly turned round to head back to the scene where they fell.

Ships and helicopters from Sweden and from NATO units that were in the area assisted in the attempted rescue operation.

Once found, the 36-year-old mother and boy were transported separately by helicopter to a hospital in Karlskrona.

Anders Olsson, who was on the rescue helicopter that pulled the woman from the sea, told Swedish radio on Friday that she was ‘not responsive’ and first aid was administered to her.

Police spokesperson Mariusz Ciarka told local media that it was impossible to save the lives of the two, both of whom were Polish citizens.

He said: ‘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 boy fell from a height of about 20 meters – 65 feet – off the Stena Line ferry, it has been reported.

‘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.

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