Major English Channel search operation after person 'falls off cruise ship'

A major search has been launched in the English Channel to find a staff member who seemingly fell from a cruise ship.

Emergency crews including the RNLI and Coastguard raced to reports of a man on the German cruiseliner Aida Perla going overboard this morning. They are conducting a rescue mission off Ramsgate on the Kent coast and the cruise company confirmed to the Mirror that the person who went overboard was one of their own staff.

The vessel was transporting passengers from Hamburg to Rotterdam in The Netherlands, according to reports. An RNLI spokesperson told The Mirror that it launched two lifeboat crews at 8.35am - 15 minutes after receiving the call and that the search is ongoing.

However conditions today are ideal for a search, coming in the immediate aftermath of Storm Babet, and a helicopter is also being used in the operation.

The HM Coastguard added: "HM Coastguard is coordinating the search for a man reported overboard from a passenger ship off Ramsgate on 22 October. HM Coastguard was alerted at about 8.55am. The HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter has been sent from Lydd alongside a Coastguard fixed-wing aircraft and the RNLI's all-weather lifeboats from Ramsgate and Dover."

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A spokesperson for the cruise company said: "AIDA Cruises confirms that there is reason to believe that a crew member of AIDAperla went overboard in the English channel in the early morning of October 22. The captain and crew of AIDAperla immediately initiated all necessary rescue measures in close coordination with the local authorities.

"The search on board confirmed that a male crew member is missing. The ship was immediately stopped and returned to the spot where the incident was believed to have taken part in the search. The search for the missing person is ongoing and has our utmost priority."

There is no update in the search as of 16:30pm BST.