The group, believed to be in their late teens and early 20s, had travelled to the popular holiday spot , Camber Sands from the capital yesterday to enjoy the sun as most of Londoners do every summer.
All five victims were named as 18-year-old Kenugen Saththiyanathan, known as Ken, and his brother Kobikanthan Saththiyanathan, who was 22 and known as Kobi, from Erith, southeast London with their friends Nitharsan Ravi, 22, from Plumstead, 23-year-old Inthushan Sriskantharasa, from Grays in Essex, and Gurushanth Srithavarajah, who was 27, and from Welling, southeast London.
Nitharsan Ravi’s brother, Ajirthan, said the group had been caught by a rapidly rising tide and were unable to swim to shore because of the current.
He said they had gone to the water’s edge at the popular East Sussex beach some way out but the tide suddenly turned.
Although all were good swimmers and tried to swim to shore, they were trapped by a strong current and became exhausted.
Mr Ravi said: “They walked up to the ocean but a few minutes later the ocean came all the way back (in) so at that… point they were feeling they were going to get drowned.
“From that point they tried to save themselves by swimming… back – they are good swimmers – but the problem is the tide was strong so that they couldn’t swim back. They didn’t have enough energy to come back in.
“They were stuck in the water. They were driven backwards because of water currents. Because of waves.”
Witness Hannah Chatfield described how she helped drag one of the men out of the water after the alarm was raised.
She said: “The first man was pulled out of the sea unconscious. Maybe 20 minutes later, a woman came over shouting, and saying there’s more in there.
“Me and my boyfriend went to get him because the (emergency services) were with the first guy. We were on the beach for about 45 minutes trying to resuscitate him but it didn’t work.”
Mr Ravi said what happened showed the importance of placing lifeguards at popular beaches such as Camber Sands who have an understanding of the dangers that can occur.
He said: “Only a few minutes delay meant the death toll was five. We strongly recommend to have a… strong, reliable lifeguard system so that they can measure the wind and the wave currents and then predict what can happen.”
