What the hell has gone on there? 5 dead and 1 missing. People saying the sea was calm with little or no breeze. Known to have a riptide but still, 5 or 6 people in one afternoon?
Given your description were they illegals who paid the ultimate price?
Still not clear. Some media reporting they were fully clothed. Eye witnesses say otherwise. No-One on news saying 'my mate is missing' like they were after Shoreham air crash, but they're searching for a 6th so they know a 6th person is missing. Nothing adds up at the moment.
They were all from London.
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story...
Know the area well, close to the greatest named town in England, Winchelsea
I think they wanted to get across to Rye and at low tide thought they could cross over, the tides change and they got caught.
Thought long and hard about doing the same when 12 with my brother, decided sensibly not to.
I haven't had a chance to 'catch up' on developments, but that is nuts if they tried to cross to Rye. I don't say this in a horrible judgemental way at all (as sometimes it can come across when typing rather than chatting face to face) but it seems they were sadly unaware of the danger of attempting that.
I'm off camping tomorrow. I had to check on the Doris' Facebook for details and I was appalled at some of the comments regarding this tragedy. I bit my tongue and came straight off it.
Saw that town yesterday, superb name!
As a general rule of thumb, people don't show the sea enough respect and a lot of people aren't strong swimmers, which in combination doesn't end well sadly.
All non swimmers according to news.Sad and foolhardy.
Lad here's brother in law got swept away by freak wave as he tried to rescue his son in Devon last summer.Son survived.He didn't.
I have a mate who's brother (a Chelsea fan) drowned. They all came out of a pub (including my mate) and decided to go for a midnight swim in the river when drunk.
Needless to say, my mate struggles massively with it some 30ish years later.
The river police always came to my primary school warning of the Thames because we lived literally (I mean literally!) a stones throw from the banks. I'm always fearful of water even though I can swim to a decent level. The word 'current' was drummed into us kids...it was like some evil monster you couldn't see so we never dared go near it.
There used to be all those scary public service films too .
This still gives me the hee bee geeebies.
I saw Benny from Grange Hill on that RIP
That's exactly the scare tactics used on us. You'd be very lucky to see any kid even paddle in the Thames. It did bloody stink back then though.
Good spot.
It's relatively clean nowadays.