TRIO’S TRAGIC PADDLE
Three women found dead at Brighton beach ‘were all related’ and died after ‘falling down hidden drop in the sea’
THREE women who died in the sea are believed to have fallen down a hidden drop while paddling.
The bodies of the young victims, said to be related, were recovered from the water early on Wednesday morning.
Coastguard sources suspect at least one may have been dragged into danger in the choppy sea in Brighton.
It is thought they may have misjudged a sharp slope in the sea known as a “shingle shelf” while going for a paddle.
They were understood to be fully dressed in “going-out clothes”, and their handbags are thought to have been found on the beach.
Police said they believed they had identified the women and informed their next of kin.
A source told The Sun they are thought to be in their late teens or early 20s.
A woman understood to live in Jamaica wrote online: “My mum just called me to tell me the bodies of the three women that were found in Brighton beach are my cousins.”
She said she was “in complete shock” at the deaths.
Asked if they were from Jamaica, she said they were not.
A Coastguard source told The Sun: “It’s feared at least one of the women went into the water for a paddle and was then suddenly dragged into danger after misjudging the shingle shelf.
“If you took one pace out thinking it’s flat you could go down two feet or more very quickly. That can soon turn things very dangerous.”
The council’s seafront team shared a warning about the drops last November, saying: “These slopes shift with tides and storms, and they can be harder to climb than they look.”
