A 64-year-old Indian woman, who fell off a cruise ship into the Singapore Strait this week, has died, according to a social media post shared by her son.
This comes even as the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said that efforts are on to search Reeta Sahani who was onboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship with her husband, Jakesh Sahani.
“The cruise liner finally did share the footage with us & a search is also underway. With the footage we have unfortunately learnt that my mother has passed away,” the victim’s son Apoorv Sahani posted on Twitter on Tuesday.
“Thank you for showing your overwhelming support in this time of distress for my family & I will forever be grateful.”
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Apoorv had earlier sought help from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs after claiming that the cruise company is “washing their hands off”.
“My mother was travelling in Royal Carrribean cruise (Spectrum of the Seas) from Singapore. She has gone missing from the ship since this morning. Cruise staff are saying she jumped, but they have not shown us any footage and are washing their hands off,” he had said on Monday.
According to The Straits Times, the MPA has deployed two patrol craft to search for Reeta’s body in the waters, in addition to 22 commercial vessels being on a lookout.
The Singapore Police Coast Guard and the Republic of Singapore Navy are also assisting in the search, covering the stretch of Singapore port waters and the Singapore Strait.
Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission in Singapore tweeted that it is in constant touch with the Sahani family as well as Singaporean authorities “to address related issues and are facilitating legal procedures”.
The Commission said it has also reached out to the India head of the Royal Caribbean cruise company to extend all cooperation.
“We remain fully committed to supporting the family in this testing time,” it said on Tuesday.
Reeta who was onboard the Spectrum of the Seas ship was found missing by her husband Jakesh sometime in the middle of the night.
On the last day of the four-day cruise on Monday, a worried Jakesh informed the ship’s crew that he is unable to locate his wife.
The crew told him later that the ship’s overboard detection systems had been alerted that something had fallen from the vessel into the Singapore Strait — a 113 km-long channel between the Strait of Malacca in the west and the South China Sea in the east.
