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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Sammy Gecsoyler

Bournemouth beach lifeguards seemed to lack experience, parents tell inquest

Composite of Sunnah Khan and Joe Abbess
Sunnah Khan and Joe Abbess. Sunnah’s father said the lifeguards on duty were ‘mostly very young, teenagers really, they all seemed panicked’. Composite: PA

The family of a 12-year-old girl who drowned off Bournemouth beach have told an inquest that they questioned the conduct of the “very young” and “panicked” lifeguards who took 50 minutes to find her in shallow water.

Sunnah Khan, 12, and Joe Abbess, 17, drowned last May, and eight other people were treated by paramedics, after they were caught in a rip tide next to the pier at the Dorset seaside resort.

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