A 14-year-old who went missing while on a cruise with his family has been found safe and sound.
American teenager Aydin Brown had been on the European cruise with his grandmother when the ship docked in the German port of Rostock-Warnemünde.
He had last been seen at 7am on the Thursday (4 July) when he left the Caribbean Princess cruise ship and had gone off by himself.
Police sent out photos of the teenager, including ones from a security video which appeared to be showing an unidentified man speaking to the 14-year-old.
14-year-old Aydin Brown went missing from a cruise ship on 4 July. (Police Handout)
In a statement, police said that the two of them were seen walking to Warnemünde church square at around 7:45am local time on the day Aydin went missing.
The teen’s grandmother left the ship that same day to stay in Rostock-Warnemünde, and cruise company Princess Cruises paid for the 14-year-old’s mother to fly out to Germany.
Search efforts were launched to find the teenager and fortunately, Brown was found in a safe condition.
Aydin was reunited with his family yesterday (6 July) so it would appear that this story has a happy ending.
“We are delighted that Aydin Brown has been found safe and sound,” Princess Cruises said in a statement yesterday. “We extend our heartfelt gratitude to German authorities for their swift response and exceptional efforts in locating Aydin after he disembarked in Warnemünde last Thursday morning.”
The cruise had departed from Southampton, England on 30 June and had been scheduled to make stops around the Baltic Sea, including trips to the Danish capital of Copenhagen and Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm in a 12-day cruise.
The American teenager had been on board the ship with his grandmother. (Getty Stock Photo)
Despite their intent to be used for travel and fun, bad things can happen onboard cruise ships.
It can be hard to find people who go missing on them, as there have been a number of missing persons cases involving cruise ships where no body was ever found.
Some people who have been missing, presumed dead, for decades leaving their families with no answers as to their whereabouts will likely never get a resolution.
Then of course there’s the ever-present danger for cruise ship passengers of being accidentally left behind.
Some passengers have been left stranded on islands because they didn’t get back to the cruise ship in time and weren’t allowed back on board.
Luckily in Aydin’s case he was found safe and has been reunited with his family.