Three from same family die in Sussex coast water incident
Three family members died after getting into difficulty in the water off the Sussex coast. A younger girl is in critical condition.
Three members of the same family have died after getting into difficulty in the water off the Sussex coast on Tuesday afternoon, police have confirmed.
Emergency services were called at around 2:40 p.m. to reports of four people struggling in the water close to Shoreham Fort, a historic battery on the English Channel coast in West Sussex.
Sussex Police, His Majesty's Coastguard and the RNLI all responded to the incident. All four people were brought ashore, but despite the efforts of paramedics, a man, a woman and a teenage girl were pronounced dead at the scene.
A younger girl from the same family was taken to hospital, where she remains in a critical condition.
Chief Superintendent James Collis of Sussex Police confirmed that all four individuals were from the same family and that their next of kin have been informed.
The circumstances surrounding how the group came to be in difficulty in the water are not yet known. The incident has prompted a significant emergency response in the Shoreham-by-Sea area.