A massive emergency operation was launched yesterday in Shoreham-on-Sea after with three members of the same family tragically dying trying to save a younger girl
The father who died in the Shoreham sea tragedy has been named as Hossam Al-Khawas and was a Palestinian refugee.
Al-Khawas was from the Rashidieh Camp in Lebanon and was one of three people who died on the south England coast yesterday. The embassy was unable to confirm the names of the other family members.
It comes after a massive emergency operation was launched in response to the incident in West Sussex yesterday. Sussex Police confirmed on Tuesday evening that a man, a woman and a teenage girl had sadly passed away, while a younger girl from the same family was critically ill in hospital.
According to reports the younger girl got caught in some fishing netting, before the three others all drowned trying to save her.
Witness Joe Chrisp, 24, said one of the children got tangled in a net. He said: “One of the local fishermen said it was two adults, two kids. One of the kids apparently got caught in a fishing net.”
Chief Superintendent James Collis stated: “At around 2.40pm this afternoon, emergency services were called to reports of four people in difficulty in the water close to Shoreham Fort. Sussex Police officers supported His Majesty’s Coastguard and the RNLI, as all four people were brought ashore.”
Neha Patel, owner of the Beach Shop near where the incident unfolded on Tuesday, told the BBC she had “not ever” heard anything like this happen in an area that she said was “very quiet”.
“I think it’s a shock to everyone around here. I hope the one girl in the hospital gets better,” she said.
Joss Loader, a local resident and representative of Shoreham Beach Residents’ Association on Adur District Council, told the Press Association: “There’s just a really strong sense of shock, obviously people are really concerned for the young girl.
“A small tightly knit community with a very deep sense of shock and that sense of disbelief you get after a tragedy because it has come out of nowhere.”