The search for a male crew member of the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship who fell overboard has been called off.

Colleagues on the Cunard vessel spent five hours looking for the man as they made their way from Southampton to Halifax, Canada.

A spokeswoman said the search has now been called off.

She said: "A search was carried out for a missing crew member on Queen Mary 2. It has been clearly established that the crew member went overboard earlier this morning.

"The ship was off the coast of Newfoundland and in association with local authorities, it carried out an extensive search of the area in which he went overboard but unfortunately there were no sightings.

"Having discussed this with experts ashore there is no possibility that the crew member could have survived this long in the water and we therefore have to presume that he died in the water.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, which is being informed, as well as friends and his colleagues on board."

Allan Bonner, a passenger on board, said there were a number of on-board announcements for a man before the search got under way.

Mr Bonner said: "As the ship appeared to be approaching the Grand Banks, the captain Kevin Oprey made a dignified announcement saying we're going back to the spot [where the man] was first thought to be missing.

"About five-to-six hours later, we were searching the ocean.

"The captain has made a series of professional, calm announcements about what's going on.

"Some crew say they've never heard of losing a crew member. Some memories go back 30 or so years.

"The rocking of the usually calm ship was a signal that something abnormal was going on."

Mr Bonner added that passengers also tried to help by peering over the railings, but efforts to find the man were hampered by dense fog.