NSW: Boy has lucky escape after falling overboard

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2001
NSW: Boy has lucky escape after falling overboard

A young boy has been saved by two quick-thinking sailors after he fell overboard from
a pleasure cruise boat in Sydney Harbour today.

The boy, believed to be four or five years old, fell through an opening on the side
of a Matilda cruises vessel as it went under the Sydney Harbour Bridge around midday.

A Waterways Authority spokesman says the boy's parents yelled out when he fell overboard
and the ferry master put the boat's engines into neutral and issued a "man overboard"

call.

The spokesman says two men on a nearby yacht jumped into the water and after the cruise
boat had passed over the boy, managed to keep him afloat until a Waterways vessel at the
Opera House sped over and picked them up.

The child was unscathed but was vomiting heavily after swallowing sea water and was
taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

A Matilda Cruises spokesman says the company will not comment until an investigation
is completed.

AAP RTV sal/ldj

KEYWORD: MATILDA (SYDNEY)

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