A 60-day cruise around Australia has been cancelled days after the death of an elderly female passenger who was left behind by the ship on a remote island.

Suzanne Rees had been hiking on Lizard Island with fellow passengers from the Coral Adventurer, but broke off from the group for a rest. The ship left without her and returned several hours later after the crew realised the woman was missing.

A major search operation found her body the following day.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) is investigating the incident, alongside Queensland Police and the state coroner.

The CEO of the cruise operator Coral Expeditions, Mark Fifield, said on Saturday that passengers and crew on the Coral Adventurer were told on Wednesday that the remainder of the voyage had been cancelled due to the “tragic passing of Suzanne Rees and previous mechanical issues”.

He added in a statement that passengers would be issued a full refund, and said Coral Expeditions was working “to co-ordinate the return journeys of the passengers via chartered flights”.

Amsa also released an updated statement on Saturday, saying it had “issued a notice to the Master of Coral Adventurer” prohibiting any new passengers from boarding the ship.

The spokesperson said that officials would attend the vessel in Cairns upon its return.

The ship initially left the north-western city on 24 October, and was just two days into the voyage at the time of the 80-year-old’s death. Lizard Island was the first stop on the journey.

Passengers aboard – who typically pay tens of thousands of dollars to join the cruise – were transported there for a day trip with the option of hiking or snorkelling.

Suzanne Rees’ daughter, Katherine Rees, said on Thursday that her family was “shocked and saddened that the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island after an organised excursion without my mum”.

She described her mother as an “active 80-year-old” who was a member of a bushwalking group.

“From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense.”

Ms Rees added that she hoped the coroner’s inquiry would be able to pinpoint what “the company should have done that might have saved mum’s life”.

“We understand from the police that it was a very hot day, and mum fell ill on the hill climb,” she said.

“She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count.

“At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, mum died, alone.”

Earlier this week, Mr Fifield confirmed that Coral Expeditions was “working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities to support their investigation”.

He said that the company was “deeply sorry that this has occurred” and had offered its full support to the Rees family.

• Investigation after woman left behind by cruise ship dies on island
  • Published2 days ago

The Coral Adventurer caters for up to 120 guests with 46 crew, according to the company’s website. It was purpose-built to access remote areas of Australia’s coast and is equipped with “tenders” – small boats used to take passengers on day excursions.

Incidents like this are rare, and cruise ships have systems to record which passengers are embarking or disembarking, Harriet Mallinson, cruise editor of travel website Sailawaze, told the BBC.

“Sneaking ashore or [back] on board just isn’t an option,” she said.

Cruise lines take these procedures very seriously and have “clever tech in place to prevent such incidents from happening”, Ms Mallinson added.

“This is most likely a shocking – and tragic – one-off.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the defence of Pokrovsk is a “priority”, as elite special forces were deployed to the embattled town on the eastern front line.

Ukrainian army sources told the BBC that special forces from military intelligence and assault groups were being used as regular infantry to protect supply lines to troops holding the town in the Donbas region.

There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town to the west of Donetsk. Ukraine has denied claims their forces were surrounded.

Moscow wants Kyiv to cede the entire Donbas region as part of a peace deal, including the parts it currently does not control.

Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.

The deployment of special forces suggests officials in Kyiv are determined to try to hold on to the town, which Russia has been trying to seize for more than a year.

Local media say the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, was in the region to personally oversee the operation.

Pokrovsk is a key transport and supply hub whose capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of the region.

But Kyiv also believes its capture would help Russia in its efforts to persuade the US that its military campaign is succeeding – and, therefore, that the West should acquiesce to its demands.

Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin’s failure to move forward with peace negotiations – culminating in US President Donald Trump placing sanctions on two largest Russian oil producers and axing plans for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has indicated he is open to Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire that would freeze the war along the current front lines. Russia has publicly insisted Ukrainian troops leave the remainder of the Donbas.

In his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said: “Pokrovsk is our priority. We continue to destroy the occupier, and that is what matters most… They must be halted where they have reached – and destroyed there.”

Images shared with news agencies appear to show a Ukrainian Black Hawk helicopter deploying about 10 troops near Pokrovsk, although the location and date could not be verified.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had thwarted the deployment of Ukrainian military intelligence special forces north-west of the town, killing all 11 troops who landed by helicopter.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source monitoring group, estimates about half of Pokrovsk is a so-called “grey zone” where neither side is in full control.

A military source in Donetsk told the BBC that Ukrainian forces were not surrounded but their supply lines were under fire from Russian troops.

“The situation in the city has changed so much that [Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Gen Oleksandr] Syrsky is now sending elite units into the city to stabilise it,” he said.

These included special forces and assault units in Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence agency (GUR), he said.

“Fighting is now taking place for the railway station and the industrial zone in the west. The battles for the industrial zone have almost reduced logistics from roughly vehicle-based to foot-based.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are not in a physical encirclement, but in an operational one – this means that all logistics are under fire control.”

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces had “marginally advanced” during recent counter-attacks north of Pokrovsk, but said the town was “mainly a contested ‘grey zone'”.

The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces has warned Russian activity is increasing around the key frontline town of Pokrovsk, saying “the situation is difficult”.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi admitted Russian infantry was massing in the area and said he had visited the frontline himself for talks with key commanders.

But he said reports that Ukrainian troops had been “blockaded” there by Russian forces was “untrue” propaganda.

There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town in the Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine. It forms a key transport and supply hub and its capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of the region.

In a statement on Telegram, General Syrskyi said: “In Pokrovsk, enemy infantry, avoiding combat, is amassing in the urban area and changing locations, so the primary objective is to identify and destroy them.”

He added: “The situation is difficult, but Russian propaganda claims about the alleged ‘blockade’ of the Ukrainian Defence Forces in Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk, are untrue.”

He said commanders were having to maintain “a reasonable balance between goals and capabilities.”

“The main priority is preserving the lives of our soldiers,” he added.

Russian forces have been trying to seize Pokrovsk for more than a year. Taking it would give them a path towards taking the two biggest cities still controlled by Ukraine in the region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s chief of general staff, Gen Valery Gerasimov, claimed earlier this week Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk had been surrounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Pokrovsk was “the main target” for Russia whose forces there, he said, outnumbered Ukrainians by eight to one.

He told reporters Russia wanted to take the town to convince the United States that Ukraine was on the run.

“They do not have a result they can ‘sell’ to the Americans. We understand why they need Pokrovsk. They need it only to claim that Ukraine withdraws from the east and gives everything else they want,” Zelensky said.

In its latest assessment, the defence intelligence firm, Sybelline, said the battle for Pokrovsk “has entered a highly dynamic and intense phase, as the Russian forces intensify their efforts to infiltrate the city and encircle Ukrainian defenders”.

Deepstate, a Ukrainian monitoring group, said Russian forces were “gradually engulfing” Pokrovsk “with [their] sheer number of personnel”.

It said Russian troops were infiltrating deeper into the town and disrupting Ukrainian supply routes.

“The situation in Pokrovsk is on the brink of crisis and continues to deteriorate, to the point where it may be too late to fix everything,” the group concluded.