‘Lifeguards would have saved my brother and friends’
Call for warning signs at Camber Sands after five men who could all swim were overcome by tide
THE grief-stricken family of one of the victims of the Camber Sands tragedy has said they would not have died if there had been lifeguards on duty.
They also questioned why the beach had not been closed following another death only weeks earlier.
Nitharsan Ravi, 22, a former aeronautical engineering student, died with four childhood friends while swimming in the sea at the popular Sussex resort on the hottest day of the year.
He, Kurushanth Srithavarajah, 27, brothers Kenigan and Kobi Nathan, aged 19 and 22, and Inthushan Sriskantharasa, 23, all of Sri Lankan origin, had driven to Camber Sands from their homes in south-east London on Wednesday afternoon.
But within minutes of entering the water two of them got into difficulties and the others went to help them. It is thought they may have fallen into deep channels between sandbars, which had been made even more treacherous than usual by weekend storms.
Despite being able to swim, they were unable to reach safety and were overcome by the rising tide.
Their deaths come weeks after a 19year-old Brazilian, Gustavo Silva Da Cruz, died in the same area and Mr Ravi’s sister Mayura, 17, said the family was angry that the stretch of beach had not been blocked off. She told the BBC: “They could have saved five other lives.” Mr Ravi’s younger brother, Ajithan, said there should have been life- guards on duty. “Ken and Inthushan got stuck under the water in the mud and sand and their three friends went under the water to try and save them. But all five of them got into difficulty and sadly died,” he said. “My brother could swim just like the rest of them could, but because of the strong tide it wore them out easily. A lifeguard could have saved their lives.”
Kugan Gianarathinam, his uncle, said: “There needs to be more lifeguards at Camber Sands. They say it’s one of the safest beaches in Britain but it’s a lie, Nitharsan and his friends are dead. They also need to put up more signs warning of the dangers. It is not safe for anybody.”
Locals have been campaigning to have more lifeguards operating in the area, with an online petition collecting more than 3,600 signatures.
Emily Van Eyssen, 44, who lives near the beach, said: “It’s absolutely crazy that a car park here can make over £30,000 a day on a busy beach on a hot day. That should be paying for lifeguards that we urgently need.”
A spokesman for Rother district council said that, despite there being no lifeguards, there were summer patrols to advise of potential dangers and deal with incidents on the beach.
He said: “While it’s very upsetting to see two similar, tragic incidents this summer, over the years these kind of incidents are extremely rare and on a fine day around 25,000 people use the beach safely.”
Sussex Police have reported Katie Hopkins, the television personality, to Twitter for carrying out an offensive poll about the deaths which asked her followers to complete the sentence “5 dead at Camber Sands were...” with a series of negative, joke answers. The tweet has now been removed.