A British woman has been rescued after spending 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea at night, having fallen from a cruise ship, Croatia’s coast guard said.
The 46-year-old, who gave her name as Kay to local media and was later named Kay Longstaff in UK reports, was taken to hospital in Pula, Croatia, and is understood to be out of danger.
It is understood she fell from the Norwegian Star cruise ship about 100km off Croatia’s coast shortly before midnight on Saturday as the vessel was making its way from the port of Vergarola to Venice, Italy.
Photo: AP / Croatian Coast Guard
The liner raised the alarm and was joined by coast guard and civilian vessels, plus a PC-9 aircraft, at about 6:30am on Sunday.
The woman was spotted at 9:40am and reached by a rescue swimmer from a patrol boat minutes later, Croatian media reported, saying she was about 1.3km away from the spot where she fell in.
The rescued passenger told the Croatian news channel HRT: “I am very lucky to be alive... I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for 10 hours, so these wonderful guys rescued me.
“I was sitting at the back of the deck and, yeah ... it was bad,” she said before being taken into an ambulance.
An unnamed rescuer told the UK’s Sun newspaper: “She said the fact that she practices yoga helped her as she was fit, and she said she was singing to not feel cold in the sea overnight.”
Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs spokesman David Radas said that by checking CCTV rescuers knew the exact moment Longstaff fell in the water.
“Because they knew the time, they were able to know the exact position of the ship,” he told the Sun.
The rescue ship’s captain, Lovro Oreskovic, said the woman was exhausted, adding: “We were extremely happy for saving a human life.”
A Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson said: “On the morning of 19 August a guest went overboard as Norwegian Star made her way to Venice. The coast guard was notified and a search and rescue operation ensued.”
“We are pleased to advise that the guest was found alive, is currently in stable condition and has been taken ashore in Croatia for further treatment. We are very happy that the individual, who is a UK resident, is now safe and will soon be reunited with friends and family,” the spokesperson said.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS