Teenage girl and woman die after distress call at Essex beach as rescue operation continues
A teenage girl and a woman in her 40s died after getting into difficulty in the sea off an Essex beach on Wednesday evening, in
A teenage girl and a woman in her 40s died after getting into difficulty in the sea off an Essex beach on Wednesday evening, in an incident that sent emergency crews racing to the coast. Police said a third person remained in hospital in a serious condition, while two more were being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
The alarm was raised at about 17:35 BST, according to the coastguard. Witnesses described a chaotic scene on the beach at Sea View Holiday Park, West Mersea, where people appeared to be receiving CPR while rescue teams worked in difficult circumstances. One onlooker called the scene “absolutely horrific”.
Emergency crews called to West Mersea
Essex Police said officers believed the five people involved knew each other. That detail has sharpened the focus on what happened in the water, though authorities have not released further information about the group.
East of England Ambulance Service said it sent multiple resources to the scene, including its Hazardous Area Response Team, critical care paramedics and two air ambulances. The service said two patients could not be revived despite the efforts of emergency crews.
One patient was flown to hospital by air ambulance. Three others were taken by land ambulance. The ambulance service said all available help was mobilised quickly. Fast, and in force.
Witnesses saw CPR on the sand
People nearby watched the response unfold on the beach. One witness said she saw three people appearing to be given CPR as emergency teams tried to save them. She praised the crews for working “so hard” and said she could not praise them enough.
The witness’s account points to how quickly a beach outing can turn deadly, especially when several people are caught in trouble at once. Coastal emergencies often demand a chain of rapid decisions: call-out, rescue, treatment, transfer. In this case, responders had to work across the shoreline and then shift patients to hospital as the seriousness of the incident became clear.
Questions remain over what happened in the water
Police have not said what caused the group to get into difficulty. They have, however, confirmed that the people involved were believed to know one another, suggesting this was not an isolated incident involving strangers spread across the beach.
Sea View Holiday Park sits on the Essex coast, an area that can draw families and day-trippers during the summer months. But the coast can change fast. Tides, currents and cold water all raise the risks, even in places that look calm from shore. On Wednesday evening, those risks turned fatal in a matter of minutes.
Authorities have not yet released the names of those who died. What they have confirmed is stark enough: two dead at the scene, one person in a serious condition in hospital, and another two injured. The ambulance service said it had deployed two air ambulances to the response.
