Seven drown at Camber Sands

Seven drownings at Camber Sands were due to misadventure, coroner rules

The deaths of seven men, including five young friends, who drowned at a popular beach on the UK south coast last summer were due to misadventure, a coroner has concluded.

Mohit Dupar, 36, tried to reach Brazilian Gustavo Silva Da Cruz, 19, as he got into difficulty at Camber Sands, near Rye, East Sussex, on 24 July, but both died.

A month later, five friends, who all lived in London, were of Sri Lankan origin and aged 18 to 27, drowned at the same beach after being seen playing volleyball in the sea on 24 August.

Nine deaths occurred at Camber in the four years from 2012, including the seven last summer. Lifeguards were not deployed until after the five deaths in August, despite recommendations from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to employ them three years earlier.

Recording his conclusions following a five-day inquest in Hastings, East Sussex, senior coroner Alan Craze said: “The RNLI had recommended, amongst other measures, deploying lifeguards at the beach in 2013 but this had not happened. Of course, it is not known whether such a step would have prevented the deaths, but it has now been implemented.”The five friends who died in August were Kenugen Saththiyanathan, 18, known as Ken, and his brother Kobikanthan Saththiyanathan, 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 Gurushanth Srithavarajah, 27, of Welling, south-east London. 

The inquest heard the five men were all fit, healthy and competent swimmers but beneath the surface at Camber Sands lurked “hidden dangers”Although rip currents were not believed to have been responsible, Camber has sandbars that can catch people out when the tide comes in rapidly, sometimes causing people to wade through water to reach shore, the inquest heard. 

Oceanographer Dr Simon Boxall believed the five men got into trouble after heading out to a sandbar to play with a ball a significant distance out at sea, and then got caught out. 

Amid a fast incoming tide, it appeared the men may have panicked trying to help one of their friends and then got into trouble as they tried to get back to shore. 

Boxall, a senior lecturer at the University of Southampton, said there also would have been strong currents that would have had a significant impact even on a strong swimmer. As the men were far out at sea, he said he doubted whether anyone would have seen them from shore, particularly with glare facing people looking out to the water.

Prior to the deaths last summer, the Camber area was manned by beach patrol staff whose tasks included reuniting lost children with their parents and dealing with lost property.

Three years earlier, the RNLI had offered to deploy lifeguards at Camber following a risk assessment after the death of Tanzeela Ajmal, 31, in 2012 and a number of near misses, the inquest was told