Police in Britain are working to identify five men who died, and a sixth who is still missing, on the Camber Sands beach in Sussex, Southern England.
Emergency services worked with bystanders to try and save three of the men after they got into difficulties in the water at about 2.15 pm on Wednesday, The Guardian reported.
But all three died within 20 minutes of being pulled from the sea and a further two bodies were later found.
It is not clear what happened to cause the deaths, and one witness told reporters that the sea had been calm, with "no waves and no wind."
There was speculation that the deaths might have been called by jellyfish, but authorities have ruled this out, and police said there was no evidence to suggest the men were migrants.
According to figures released by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as part of its ongoing Respect the Water campaign, 168 people drowned accidentally in the UK's tidal waters last year.
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