[caption id="attachment_71716" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Stena-Line"]
A 37-year-old woman has been arrested by police after false reports that a baby had fallen into Belfast Lough from a ferry.
Claims that the baby had fallen from a ship led to a major air and sea search last Wednesday and Thursday. Several search and rescue
agencies from both sides of the border were involved in the massive operation, which led to ferry services being cancelled and Belfast Port
being closed for a time on Wednesday evening.
The search was eventually called off on Thursday afternoon, after extensive efforts failed to find the child.
Police later said they no longer believed that a baby had been in the care of the woman who had herself fallen overboard from a passenger ferry as it came in to dock at Belfast Port on Wednesday evening.
The Belfast woman was rescued 15 minutes after the alarm was raised by passengers on board the Stena Line ferry from Cairnryan in Scotland.
She was treated in hospital, where her condition was said to be stable, and later released.
John McPoland of the Ambulance Service said she was lucky to be alive.
"She has been in the water for a while and you can understand that from the coldness of that water, she would have been hypothermic," Mr.
McPoland said.
On Thursday, a police spokesman said: "Police now understand the report of a baby going into the water was incorrect.
"Police do not believe there was a baby in the woman's care on the ferry. Enquiries are continuing."
The woman was later held for questioning in a Belfast police station on suspicion of wasting police time.
In a statement, Stena Line said it would continue to assist with PSNI with investigations into the incident.
"The company is also in the process of carrying out its own investigation as to the circumstances of the incident and will share this information with all relevant authorities," a spokesperson said.
