A crew member on the world's largest cruise ship stabbed his female colleague before jumping overboard to his death, according to police.
The two crew members, whose identities have not been revealed, were working aboard the lavish Icon Of The Seas shortly before 7.30pm on Thursday evening, when they became embroiled in a "personal dispute".
The man repeatedly stabbed the woman in the upper body and then leapt overboard into the sea off the coast of San Salvador Island in the Bahamas.
As panicked passengers threw life rings into the water, onboard medical staff rushed into a speedboat to rescue him.
Half an hour later, the body of the 35-year-old South African man was retrieved from the sea by the search party.
The woman, aged 28, also from South Africa, was later found on board with stab wounds to her upper body but she is now in a stable condition, Royal Bahamas Police Force told NBC News.
Reports state that the cruise ship immediately slowed down and turned around when the alarm was sounded that the man had gone overboard.
Tracking data shows the ship changed its course northeast of San Salvador Island, around 200 miles east of Nassau.
The decks were sealed off while an emergency rescue effort was carried out.
Images showed medical officers pulling the man's body from the water on to the speedboat.
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson said: "One of the crew members was injured, was attended to by the onboard medical team, and she is now in stable condition.
“Unfortunately, the other crew member is deceased after he went overboard and was recovered in a search and rescue operation.”
They added that "a personal dispute" is understood to have led to the attack.
Investigations are ongoing and an autopsy is due to take place to determine the man's cause of death.
The Icon of the Seas holds the record as the world's largest cruise ship, measuring 1,196ft in length by 219ft in width, and it has no fewer than 20 decks. A total of 2,350 international crew members are employed on the ship.
