US Coastguard searches for woman seen falling overboard from cruise ship

The cruise ship's staff launched a search for the guest and alerted the emergency serives

The ship's crew carried out a search onboard the vessel (ABC News )

The US Coast Guard is searching for a woman believed to have been seen on CCTV footage falling overboard from a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials from the agency said that the district command centre in New Orleans was contacted by the 13-deck cruise ship Carnival Liberty and alerted about a missing passenger.

The ship reported that surveillance video showed a woman falling overboard at about 2am on Friday morning. The woman has been named as Samantha Broberg from Arlington, Virginia.

The cruise ship Carnival Liberty has 13 decks (Wikipedia)

A Coast Guard aircraft was dispatched from Mobile, Alabama, to search the area - about 200 miles southeast of Galveston - where she is believed to have fallen, the Associated Press said.

“Earlier today, a 33-year-old female guest on the cruise ship Carnival Liberty was reported missing by traveling companions. A ship-wide search was conducted along with a review of the ship’s camera footage. A ship-wide search was conducted along with a review of the ship’s camera footage,” the cruise line said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, it appears the guest may have gone overboard early this morning. Authorities were notified including the US Coast Guard which is initiating a search effort in the area where the ship was located when the individual was last seen.”

Ms Broberg was on a four-day tour to Mexico (Facebook)

It added: “Carnival is providing support to the guest’s traveling companions and family. We are keeping our guest and her loved ones in our thoughts during this difficult time.”

The ship’s crew posted photographs of Ms Broberg and carried out a search.

Cruise passenger Linda Lopez told KTRK News: “They wanted to check every single room to make sure that every guest was in their room. They were just keeping us updated like ‘we have not found her’.”

She added: “People are talking about it everywhere. They’re very sad.”

The Carnival Liberty cruise ship had taken off from Galveston, Texas on Thursday for a four-day Mexico tour.