A six-year-old girl has died this Friday in the hospital, where she had been admitted since last Tuesday after being pulled from the sea on the coast of Shoreham, in Sussex county, in southern England. With her death, the number of fatalities from the same family in this tragic episode rises to four, in which her parents and her older sister also lost their lives.
The deceased have been identified as Hassan el Khawas, 55-year-old father; Zeina Alayn, 37-year-old mother; and the older daughter, Sara el Khawas, 14 years old, who died on the Shoreham beach despite the resuscitation efforts made by emergency teams. The family, of Palestinian origin and residing in London, had traveled to the coastal town to spend the day and entered the water around 2:00 PM, at which point difficulties began.
"This heartbreaking news is what we all feared after the tragic events of Tuesday. The impact of this tragedy has been felt across the country, and I know that the Shoreham community, emergency services, and everyone involved will continue to be affected for a long time," declared the local police chief, James Collis, in an official statement.
The incident on Tuesday triggered a large rescue operation after the first alert was received around 2:40 PM (local time). After reviewing security camera footage and gathering testimonies from several witnesses, authorities maintain as the main line that it is a tragic accident, ruling out for now the involvement of third parties.
"Around 2:40 PM this afternoon, emergency services were alerted that four people were in trouble in the water near Shoreham Fort (...) At that moment, we believe that all four entered the water from land to swim and, unfortunately, encountered difficulties," Collis alerted last Tuesday.
Local institutions have indicated that, although the prevailing hypothesis is that of an isolated accidental event, a file will be prepared to send to the investigating judge, in order to open the corresponding judicial investigation.