UPDATED: Red Funnel’s car ferry service between East Cowes and Southampton is delayed by an hour this afternoon (Friday) due to a police incident this lunchtime.
According to Island Echo readers, one male has been led away by Police after they boarded the car ferry at East Cowes, as first reported by Island Echo.
Police have confirmed that one male has been arrested following a ‘domestic incident’. No further details have been released.
In a statement issued to Island Echo, Red Funnel have said:
“Red Funnel regrets the delays to its passenger vehicle ferry service between Southampton and East Cowes this afternoon due to an earlier police incident at East Cowes which was outside the company’s control.
“The 12 noon sailing from East Cowes is currently running 60 minutes behind schedule and the 12 noon sailing from Southampton is running 30 minutes late. The Red Jet Hi-Speed service between Southampton and West Cowes is unaffected.
“Red Funnel very much regrets the inconvenience to customers travelling via East Cowes this afternoon. Every effort will be made to make-up time and restore the scheduled timetable as soon as possible.“Service updates are available at redfunnel.co.uk and via twitter at @RF_Service_News”.
UPDATE @ 16:05 – It has been confirmed that a Red Funnel staff member was arrested by Police in East Cowes.
In a second statement issued this afternoon, a spokesperson for Red Funnel has said:
“Red Funnel can confirm that an engineer on the 1200 hrs sailing from East Cowes was arrested by police before the vessel was due to sail. The company received no prior notification of the arrest and as such customers on this sailing were delayed by up to 60 minutes before the vessel was cleared to sail. This also had a knock-on-effect by delaying the 1200 hrs sailing from Southampton by 30 minutes.
“Red Funnel would like to apologise to customers who were delayed and inconvenienced by this incident”.
