Five men who drowned off Camber Sands in East Sussex, England were a group of Sri Lankan friends visiting from London - but beachgoers today urged police to reveal more about their mysterious deaths.
Sri Lankan friends Nitharsan Ravi, Inthushan Sri brothers Kobi Nathan, Ken Nathan, and Kurushanth Anna, all from south-east London, drowned together yesterday.
Three victims were pulled from the sea off the East Sussex beach yesterday afternoon and emergency services tried and failed to revive them in front of thousands of horrified holidaymakers.
Two more bodies - also believed to be wearing shorts and T-shirts - were found washed up by a walker as the tide went out last night.
They may have been pulled to their deaths by the powerful riptide but Sussex Police is yet to say why they think the men got in trouble, leading to concerns from beachgoers about their own safety.
Last month 19-year-old Brazilian Gustavo Silva Da Cruz died after getting into difficulties while swimming off the famous beach. In July a father and son suffered serious injuries after they were attacked by a swarm of jellyfish.
Sam Maynard, 40, who runs a beach equipment rentals company, said the continuing safety concerns and a lack of lifeguards could 'crucify' businesses.
He said: 'We just want to know what happened. It could crucify us, especially as it's a month to the day since that boy drowned last month. It's a safe beach. No one understands how this could have happened.'
Shocking: Three dead bodies were pulled from the sea off Camber Sands in East Sussex yesterday afternoon and two more bodies were found on the beach as the tide went out last night on the hottest day of the year.
Holidaymaker Gail McLean, 38, from London, was among the 25,000 at Camber Sands yesterday, said: 'No one understood how someone could have got in trouble - the water was calm as you like. It's so unusual to have five men drown'.
Another witness said: 'We noticed when we came here that there were no lifeguards. We had kids here and we were worried about them.'
'The sea is very shallow for quite a long way. It seems so strange how they got into trouble. There was no waves and no wind'.
Witnesses said the first three dead men - who are believed to originally be from Sri Lanka - did not appear to have any family or friends with them and may have travelled together from London.
Their clothes led to speculation that the victims could be illegal immigrants - but a police source said that the investigation is at an early stage and 'there is currently nothing to suggest the men were migrants'.
Chief Superintendent Di Roskilly said the men were all 'wearing clothes appropriate for being at the beach' when they died and 'came together for the day'.
She said: 'We believe they are all in their late teens and early 20s and come from the Greater London area. We have no further reports of anyone else missing from Camber and there are no on-going searches related to this incident.
This has been an incredibly tragic incident and we are offering their next of kin support at this difficult time and our thoughts are with them.'
The deaths led to renewed calls for lifeguards to be permanently stationed on the popular tourist beach. An online petition calling for the change has received more than 2,000 signatures.
Local councillor Paul Osborne said today swimmers need to be careful at Camber.
He said: 'We obviously want people to come to the beach, enjoy it and then drive home after. The sea is great, but it doesn't give up if you get into difficulty. It has to be respected.
'Camber is safe; it's not massively deep. But you do find people go in even if they can't swim and then get into difficulty. It's not a pool with steps, which doesn't have a current. The beach is a different entity all together.
'Personally I wouldn't go into the sea, and I can swim. I wouldn't risk it. If you can't swim, don't go in the sea.'
The five deaths bring the toll to 12 in less than a week as people head for the coast at the tail end of the school holidays.
Two-year-old Mckayla Bruynius died at Bristol Children's Hospital on Tuesday night after she was caught by a large wave at Fistral beach in Newquay, Cornwall, on Friday.
Her father, Rudy Bruynius, was also killed after getting into trouble as 13ft waves lashed the coast amid strong winds and rain.
A mother and son died on Saturday after a rescue operation at Aberdeen beach, while a windsurfer in his 60s died in a Colchester hospital after being rescued off the coast of West Mersea, Essex.
On Sunday a woman in her 30s died after getting into difficulties while swimming off Jersey, before a man died despite the efforts of medics after getting stuck in a rip current at Sandbanks beach in Poole, Dorset.
The alarm was raised at around 2.10pm when the first male swimmer was spotted struggling in the water.
As the emergency services, search and rescue helicopters and an air ambulance were scrambled to the scene, another man was seen in trouble ten minutes later.
Both men were pulled from the sea in a life-threatening condition. A third swimmer was then recovered from the same stretch of water at 2.35pm. Families were left in tears as they watched medics trying in vain to save the lives of the men using CPR.
Hannah Chatfield, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was at the beach with her mother, boyfriend and nephews when the drama unfolded.
She told MailOnline: 'We were on the beach when someone was pulled out, and about half an hour later a woman came up shouting saying there were more people in water.
'The lifeguards were busy with the person they had already dragged out so me and about seven other people, including a lifeguard, all ran down to the water.
'The man was quite far out but he wasn't really far out - we swam over to him and dragged him up on to the sand. I think he was in his 30s.
'Then the medics started doing CPR on him and the others and that went on for quite a while but I think they just gave up in the end.'
Kelly Thisleton, 40, from Sidcup, told The Sun: 'We were sitting on the beach when we saw someone pulling a young black guy out of the water. All the beach guards rushed down. It was three black gentlemen in their late 20s in the end.'
Police patrolled the beach using loudhailers ordering sunbathers not to enter the water.
Natalja Taylor, 30, who was on a day-trip with her husband, said: 'We saw three people being pulled out of the water. I think the people who rescued them were regular people, not emergency personnel. We don't know what condition they were in.
'Police drove on to the beach with a loudspeaker, telling people not to go into the water. They taped off a huge chunk of the beach. I'm not sure how it happened. It wasn't particularly windy, it was just a hot, sunny beach day. There were a lot of people on the beach, particularly for a weekday.'(Daily Mail)
