A man who was working on board one of the vessels in Norway’s popular Hurtigruten coastal shipping line was found dead in his cabin Wednesday night. Police are investigating the death as “suspicious,” meaning he may have been murdered.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Thursday morning that police boarded the vessel in Kristiansund Wednesday evening. Police said the man found dead had been involved in some form of a “violent act” before he reported for work on board the vessel in Bergen on Tuesday.
“What we know is that he apparently was a victim of violence before he went on board Hurtigruten in Bergen on Tuesday,” prosecutor Knut Meek Corneliussen of the Nordmøre og Romsdal Police District told NRK. “That’s what makes this suspicious.” Corneliussen said police “must investigate whether there’s a connection” between the violence in Bergen and the discovery of the man dead in his cabin.
The ship, Hurtigruten’s Vesterålen, sailed from Bergen as scheduled on Tuesday as it set off on one of Hurtigruten’s weekly northbound voyages. The man is believed to have died while the ship was sailing from Molde to Kristiansund.
Police in Kristiansund were alerted around 10pm Wednesday that a crew member on board the ship was found dead. The vessel was held at the pier in Kristiansund until 2:30am Thursday while police investigated the scene.
The body of the man, described as “relatively young,” was sent to Trondheim for autopsy. Corneliussen said it was unclear how long he’d been dead. “That’s what the coroner can clarify,” he told NRK. He declined to reveal where the man lived or his age.
newsinenglish.no staff
