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A mother was left screaming ‘Where is my baby?’ after her son, eight, fell into the sea through a tiny gap between a cruise ship and a pier in Italy.
The boy, reportedly from northern Europe, and his parents disembarked from the ship at Salerno, a port city southeast of Naples, yesterday morning.
But as he and his father walked hand-in-hand along the Stazione Marittima di Salerno cruise terminal, he broke away and began running along the harbour wall.
The youngster lost his balance and slipped into the gap only centimetres wide, the Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.
His father jumped into the sea to save his son who was floundering in the ocean, unable to grab onto anything to stay afloat.
Healthcare volunteers stepped in to save the father (Picture: Corriere Della Sera)
The mother hugged her son after the ordeal (Picture: Corriere Della Sera)
Both became wedged between the ship and the harbour, with the holidaymakers’ screams alerting a group of local volunteers who had been supporting the cruise.
One volunteer, from the healthcare charity Associazione Universo Humanitas, lowered the boy a rope and a life ring to finally fish him out as he gasped for air.
All the while his mother can be heard yelling ‘Where is my baby?’ and ‘Where is he?’ as she runs up and down the dock, footage shows, with an onlooker shouting: ‘He’s right there.’
The video shows the father being pulled up from the water while the boy and his mother can be seen embracing.
Neither was injured but both were the entire family, who have not been identified by local media, was left shaken by the incident.
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