A person who fell off a passenger ferry on Wednesday remained missing in waters off the coast of Helsinki, with authorities ending a search and rescue operation.
Baltic ferry company Tallink Silja has confirmed that a passenger on its Victoria I ferry had gone missing.
Tallink Silja communications chief Marika Nöjd told Yle the missing individual's travelling companions first noticed the person's absence after the ferry — which was on its way from Tallinn, Estonia — had arrived in Helsinki.
"[The individual's] friends noticed the person was missing at this point," Nöjd said.
Ferry staff then alerted the Coast Guard about the missing passenger, according to Nöjd.
At 5:19pm, the Coast Guard announced on social media platform X that a search and rescue operation was underway in waters off the coast of Helsinki.
The search was carried out by a maritime rescue helicopter, patrol boat Turva and a patrol vessel from the Coast Guard unit on Helsinki's Suomenlinna island. A Finnish Navy ship and several cargo vessels also participated in the search.
The search was called off at 6:45pm.
Tommi Karppi, the Border Guard's Maritime Rescue Command director in Helsinki, told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that the person fell off the ferry at 15:05pm, but that authorities were alerted about the matter around 1.5 hours after that.
Karppi said that there are slim chances of a person surviving in such cold water for very long, noting that hypothermia sets in "quite quickly", according to the paper.
The crossing from Tallinn to Helsinki on the Victoria I usually takes 3.5 hours.