Bournemouth beach: Girl, 12, & boy, 17, were ‘not hit by vessel’ before they died in incident that’s seen man arrested
A BOY and girl who died after a “major incident” off the coast of Bournemouth beach “were not hit by a vessel”, cops have revealed.
A 17-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were killed and eight others injured during the horrors on East Beach at around 4.30pm yesterday.
A man in his 40s – who was “on the water” at the time – has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
But cops have now revealed that the kids had “no contact” with a vessel while in the water.
Earlier on social media there had been speculation the swimmers had been struck by a jet-ski or boat.
A police spokesperson said: “We continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident that occurred yesterday resulting in the deaths of a 12-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy.
“We are working with partner agencies to understand what has caused the tragedy.
“However, early investigation indicates that there was no physical contact between a vessel and any swimmers at the time of the incident.
“We are investigating the circumstances that caused a number of swimmers to get into difficulty.
“Further information will be released as the investigation progresses.”
Beachgoers were left shocked as swarms of emergency services rushed to save the kids.
Dramatic photos show air ambulances landing on the beach while fire services were called alongside the Coastguard and police.
One witness, Ritta Saruchera, said her daughter and her friend were in the sea at the time when they saw what happened.
She said: “They were coming back out of the water when they saw a teenage boy struggling. There was another one floating in the water.
“We went to get help from the lifeguard and inform them of what was happening. There were three young men out there and they have been searching for a fourth.”
Nicola Holton, 43, and Stuart Clark, 42, were on the beach with their two children when the tragedy occurred.
They said the summertime scene turned into something from “a horror film.”
Mr Clark said: “As we walked to the east side of the pier there was at least one but probably a few jet skiers going across the right side of the pier.
“We didn’t take too much notice of them at the time.”There were announcements throughout the afternoon telling people not to climb on the pier. After 2pm it seemed like people weren’t going near it.
“The next announcement we got was at 4pm about a dangerous riptide in the water and it wasn’t soon after that we saw a couple of swimmers in trouble out to sea.
“It got really chaotic when they brought a young man back to shore on a lifeguard jet ski. It was obvious he wasn’t alive. That’s when people started gathering around and the lifeguards were trying to clear the beach at the same time as helping the others in the water.
“We saw the young girl get brought out too and there were no obvious injuries on her either. I just wanted to get my family off the beach with our belongings.”
Miss Holton said: “It was like a scene from a horror film. After an afternoon of lovely weather and the odd announcement to tell kids to stop climbing on the pier it looked like it had all settled down.
“When we first spotted the swimmers in distress they were far out to the east side of the pier.
“A lifeguard ran into the water with a surfboard and it seemed to take ages for him to get to them. There was an announcement to get out of the water and then the lifeguards started bringing people back to shore.
“A few were taken to the lifeguard tent and then we saw the young man and girl brought out. We were packing up our things to leave as quickly as we could. It was just awful.
“There were loads of idiots ignoring lifeguard requests to get out of the water and clear the beach. People were running towards those having CPR filming on their phones.”
Flowers have today been laid on the beach in tribute to the kids who lost their lives.