An elderly passenger was feared drowned after falling from a Fred Olsen cruise ship in the middle of the English Channel.
The 79-year-old man went missing as the ship Balmoral was returning to Dover from a three-week Adriatic cruise.
An extensive search and rescue operation failed to find the pensioner who was reported missing in the early hours of Monday morning.
Kent Police boarded the ship when it arrived in Dover after the ship’s crew searched the vessel without success.
A coastguard spokesman said: “He was last seen on board at about midnight and then known not to be on board at 06.00. In those six hours the ship covered 100 miles.”