A teenage girl and a woman in her 40s have died after five people got into difficulty in the waters off an Essex beach.
A third person remains in hospital in a serious condition, and two others are in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Essex police said they believed those involved in the incident knew each other.
The force was called by the ambulance service at 5.35pm on Wednesday after reports of the incident near Seaview Avenue in West Mersea.
DCI Al Pitcher said: “Our thoughts remain with the family members who are coming to terms with their loss. We are grateful to the people who have already spoken to us and helped with our inquiries. We would ask anyone who was at the beach at the time, and who has not yet spoken with officers, to please get in touch, to help us understand what happened.”
Emergency services urged people to avoid part of the beach in Essex on Wednesday night after what the coastguard rescue team described as a “tragic incident”. The beach reopened on Thursday.
A woman, who did not give her name, told the Press Association the incident happened at high tide, which caught the small group on a sandbank.
“It comes in very quickly and you have to be careful,” she said, adding that there was “quite a commotion” and “just total panic”.
She said helicopters were deployed and the air was filled with the sound of sirens.
“That was quite alarming, for a small place like this, I think that’s why so many people are shocked,” she said. “I mean the beach was packed with people, they were coming down to see what was going on.”
The woman said the emergency services “worked diligently” to deal with an “absolutely tragic” incident.
There have been at least 29 accidental fatalities in open water across the UK since the middle of May, according to the National Water Safety Forum.
An East of England ambulance spokesperson said it had dispatched its hazardous area response team, critical care paramedics and two air ambulances.
“Sadly, despite best efforts, two patients could not be resuscitated. One patient was transported by air to hospital, and a further three patients were transported by road to hospital,” they said.
The area is known for its strong currents, though in his response to the incident, local MP, Bernard Jenkin, told the BBC “we don’t think of West Mersea Beach as a dangerous beach”.
Anyone who was in the area at the time and has information or footage which may assist the investigation is asked to contact the police on 101 and quote incident 1090.
