Norwegian Cruise Line Calls Off Search for Passenger Who Fell Overboard After She Is Not Found

According to a statement by Norwegian Epic, the passenger was a 63-year-old Korean female

A female passenger fell off a Norwegian Epic cruise into the Mediterranean Sea, and now the rescue search for her has officially been called off.

The ship was heading from Cannes, France towards Palma de Mallorca, Spain when a 63-year-old Korean female passenger went overboard early Saturday morning, a Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson tells PEOPLE in a statement.

“As soon as the report was made, the authorities were notified and a search and rescue operation ensued,” the statement adds. “The search ceased after several hours, and sadly, the guest was not found.”

Norwegian ended the statement saying that “thoughts and prayers are with the individual’s family during this difficult time.”

According to The Sun, the passenger was last seen wearing pink pajamas, and fellow passengers immediately began assisting in the rescue attempts.

“Everyone was a bit bewildered. They asked everyone on board to help look for that person, so a lot of people were looking out of the windows or were on the edge of the ship but no one could see anything,” passenger Claire Murphy, from Tonbridge, England, told the U.K.-based outlet.

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“It took us two hours to get back to the place where they were last seen,” she added. “We stopped there for four hours to try and find the person.”

According to Murphy, the conditions during the search made it even more difficult to find her.

“We were literally in the middle of the Med. It was really windy and it was very rocky,” she said. “After a couple of hours a helicopter came…it was there for about ten minutes.”

“We were sat in one place being shafted about by the wind…eventually everyone gave up,” Murphy continued.

British passenger Angela Elliott from Nottingham, told The Sun, “There were maybe a couple of hundred passengers looking for a while. I think in the end, most passengers sadly realized that there would not be much hope of her being found alive after all that time in the water.”