Bournemouth beach: Girl, 12, and boy, 17, may have been killed by ‘wash of vessel’ | The Sun

COPS are looking into whether the "wash of a vessel" may have led to the deaths of two children at Bournemouth beach, an MP has claimed.

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.

Earlier on social media there had been speculation the swimmers had jumped off Bournemouth pier and had been struck by a jet-ski.

However, in a press conference at the beach this afternoon Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Farrell ruled out the theory.

Now an MP has given an insight into what the police may be investigating.

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Conor Burns said he understood that a "surface vessel" was in the sea around Bournemouth Pier at the time the kids got into difficulty.

The Conservative MP for Bournemouth West said: "It would seem not a far reach to draw a conclusion that while the vessel may not have physically touched the young people perhaps it created the conditions which made being in the water more dangerous by the speed it was going."

The victims were among 10 youngsters who got into difficulty while swimming in the sea around the Victorian pier.

Desperate attempts to resuscitate the boy and girl were carried out on the beach before they were airlifted to hospital where they were later pronounced dead.

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The girl was from the Buckinghamshire area and was visiting Bournemouth at the time. The teenage boy was from Southampton.

The other eight children, who were aged between 13 to 18, were rescued from the water by RNLI lifeguards and were checked over on the beach.

Rachel Farrell, the Assistant Chief Constable of Dorset police, said: "It is clear a number of people who were already in the water got into difficulty and we are investigating the circumstances that caused that to happen.

"Our early investigations indicate there was no physical contact with a vessel or the swimmers at the time.

"There is no suggestion of people jumping from the pier or jet skis being involved."

There are yellow marker buoys 200m off the beach and water craft operating inside that area are restricted to speeds of 6 knots.

Vicki Slade, the leader of BCP Council, said there was no evidence that any of these rules had been breached.

Beachgoers were left shocked yesterday 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."

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.

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"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.

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