Lifeguards in place at Camber Sands after five deaths

Three men have died after being pulled from the sea on the hottest day of the year.

A statement from Rye Harbour lifeboat station said: “Three males, unresponsive, had been dragged from the water at Camber and the Coastguard were not sure if there were any more in the water”.

A spokesman from the council responded: ‘In reviewing these suggestions, improvements were made to beach management and lifeguard service has been kept under constant review’.

Three of the other four who died have been named as Kenigan and Kobi Nathan, aged 19 and 22, and Inthushan Sri.

Tributes poured into the young men’s Facebook accounts as their names were published in the Daily Mail and The Sun.

Chief Superintendent Di Roskilly said: “This has been an incredibly tragic situation”.

And the 17-year-old said the family felt anger that the stretch of beach where they died had not been blocked off following Mr Da Cruz’s death last month.

“These men were not fully clothed when they were pulled from the sea but wearing clothes appropriate for being at the beach for the day”. A third person was rescued at 2.35pm.

A woman died on Sunday off Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, the same day a man drowned in the English seaside town of Poole. Two bodies were later found on the shore.

“That unfortunately across the United Kingdom can sometimes lead to what we call patchy provision of lifeguarding: in some areas you can have one beach and another beach that looks quite similar but you may have one lifeguarded and the other not”. Beach patrol staff advise people about danger in the water but can not perform sea rescues.

Two coastguard shore teams had also been sent to search the area.

A spokesman said: “You will, no doubt, have read or listened to the news today and heard the awful and tragic news of five deaths at Camber Sands yesterday”.

Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.

“And there are no massive rip currents”. If you see photographs of the sea at the time, it’s very calm.

He said: “We went to the beach at 9am and the water was very calm”.

A petition to have lifeguards, of which there are now none, put in place at Camber Sands has attracted more than 3,500 signatures in under a day.

Beach patrols are in operation, but many feel that the beach, which is visited by up to 25,000 people on a summer day, needs further safety improvements to keep the public safe.

“But I think it’s not just a lifeguard but we need to look at other issues to do with people coming from outside the area who aren’t familiar with the dangers of the sea and maybe people being better informed about the dangers of coming to a natural environment”.