A major search and rescue mission launched on Sunday on Camber Sands, where five friends drowned last week, has been called off after a swimmer was found safe and well.
The RNLI, police and coastguard had been involved in the search, days after five men died at the East Sussex beach.
The search on Sunday, which included a coastguard helicopter, began after a pair of flip-flops was found on the beach, near where a woman had been seen diving into the sea. A spokeswoman for the coastguard service told the Guardian the individual had been tracked down, having left the beach, and was safe and well.
The spokeswoman said: “There was major reason for concern as this is a dangerous beach and lifeguards were not on yet duty at the time the swimmer was missed. It’s a great relief that this person has been found safe and well.”
Sussex police released a statement saying they had been called at about 9.40am with concerns about a woman who had been seen getting into the sea at about 8am.
“It was believed the woman, who was described as white with dark hair and wearing a black swimming costume, had left a pair of sandals on the beach which had still not been retrieved,” the statement said.
“A woman matching the description of the swimmer called the RNLI at around 11.45am to identify herself,” the police said.
On Wednesday, five friends, all aged in their teens or 20s, died at the beach near the town of Rye, prompting authorities to deploy lifeguards on the normally unguarded seafront for the busy bank holiday weekend.
Up to six RNLI lifeguards were due to be on duty at Camber Sands over the weekend, plus a team giving safety information to visitors between Saturday and Monday. Yesterday the RNLI announced it would be extending this service until Sunday 4 September, to provide coverage for the rest of the school holidays.
Last Wednesday, Kenugen Saththiyanathan, 18, known as Ken, his brother Kobikanthan, 22, known as Kobi, both of Erith, south-east London, and their friends Nitharsan Ravi, 22, of Plumstead, south-east London, Inthushan Sriskantharasa, 23, of Grays, Essex, and Kurushanth Srithavarajah, 27, of Welling, south-east London, died after visiting the beach.
It is believed they were playing football on a sandbar. One theory is that they became stranded as the tide came in. Another suggestion is that two of the men were trapped in quicksand or mud.
Relatives of some of the men criticised the lack of lifeguards at Camber and suggested they might have stood a chance of survival if the beach had been guarded.
The father of Kenugen and Kobikanthan Saththiyanathan, Arumukam, told the Sun: “I brought my children from Sri Lanka because it is not safe back there. But there were no lifeguards on the beach where they died. If there had been, my sons would have at least had a fighting chance of survival.”
Ravi’s family said they felt “very angry” at the lack of response from the authorities following the death of another man, the Brazilian Gustavo Silva Da Cruz, 19, at Camber last month.
A spokesman for Rother district council said that, despite there being no lifeguards, there were summer patrols to advise people of potential dangers.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, who is also MP for the area, issued a statement last week offering condolences to the family and said she was working to address the situation. “Local leadership are very aware that this is something they need to come together to address and so we are going to be convening a group of local leaders to work out what additional actions can be taken to stop such awful incidents from happening. Camber Sands has strong riptides and we need to find ways to put additional protection in place,” she said.
