Swimmers describe panic as two drowned, inquest hears

An inquest has heard harrowing accounts from witnesses who were dragged out to sea by a rip current which led to the drowning of two young people.

Joe Abbess, 17, from Southampton, and 12-year-old Sunnah Khan, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, died after getting into trouble in the water off Bournemouth Beach in May 2023.

Another eight people were also rescued and treated by paramedics.

One witness said the waves went "from zero to absolute chaos with no warning".

Dorset Coroner’s Court heard a statement from one of Joe's friends, who continued: "There were really strong, big waves that came out of nowhere and knocked me over and under the water. I couldn’t get up and was taking a lot of water.

"I couldn’t breathe and thought I was going to die… at one point I looked up and could see the rest of the group swimming back to the shore...

"I didn’t shout for anyone because I actually thought I was going to die and I didn’t want anyone else to get into difficulty just because I was."

He recounted that he was "really, really far out... much further than the end of the pier" before he gained his breath and swam backstroke to stay afloat.

"It seemed to take me ages and ages," he said.

"When I got myself back to the shallows where I could stand I was exhausted."

'Panic'

Coroner Rachael Griffin also read a statement from a boy who went into the sea with Joe.

"Out of nowhere a wave hit Joe and it was larger than his head," he said.

"Waves started coming and they were getting stronger and stronger. It happened all of a sudden."

The last he saw of Joe was the teenager being swept out to sea, as the witness himself "started to panic that he could not touch the floor any longer".

"He explained the water was going over his head and he started to scream to others saying ‘I can’t breathe’ and ‘help'," Ms Griffin read.

"He then noticed another woman who was also in difficulty next to him. He said she was struggling to swim and screaming ‘help’."

Det Ch Insp Neil Third of Dorset Police also gave evidence, confirming a timeline of events gathered by witness statements and CCTV footage.

He described it as a "warm day" during school half term, and that the beach was busy.

The first sign of people struggling was at 15:46 BST, with the first lifeguard seen running into the water at 15:53. The first ambulance arrived at 16:13 and police declared a major incident at 16:45.

At about that point Sunnah was spotted in the sea, with Joe having been pulled out at 16:18.

Police enquiries initially centred around pleasure cruiser the Dorset Belle but a man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter faced no action.

Det Ch Insp Third said: "It would appear to have been a rip current and a tragic accident."

Asked about the response of the emergency services, he said: "There’s always some learning.

"There’s always ways you can look to debrief and improve, but from what I’ve seen... they were doing their best in difficult circumstances."

He said he had also concluded there was no third party involvement in the deaths.

'Unpredictable'

Dr Simon Boxall, an expert in physical oceanography and senior lecturer at the University of Southampton, said the day of the incident appeared to have started out as "rather nice" with "no apparent risk of danger".

But he said it was a "change in frequency of the waves plus the north-easterly wind which contributed to a rip current being quite so intense".

He explained how with "tens of thousands of tonnes of water exiting in a very short period of time" the flow could have exceeded six mph.

"That’s a significant speed," he said. "An Olympic swimmer wouldn’t be able to swim against that sort of flow."

However, Dr Boxall said Joe and Sunnah were were "obeying all rules and doing things correctly".

He added: "In most cases in coroners courts its often because people are ignoring warnings or perhaps ignoring the safe swimming zones."

He said the ocean was "unpredictable at times and this was a good case where the ocean was unpredictable".

The inquest, in Bournemouth, continues.

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