Shalina Rahman and her 15-year-old daughter, Sameeha, died in an Essex fire tragedy off West Mersea on Wednesday evening after trying to help a seven-year-old boy who got into difficulty in the water. Essex police said the boy was taken to hospital in London and remained in a critical condition.
The alarm came at 5.35pm, when the ambulance service called Essex police after reports of an incident near Seaview Avenue in West Mersea. Detective chief inspector Al Pitcher said the woman and teenage girl had died and that the force was speaking to dozens of witnesses.
Al Pitcher on the West Mersea response
Pitcher said: "My thoughts, and those of my team, are with the friends and family of the woman and girl who died yesterday." He added: "We can now confirm they were a mother and daughter from London and we are supporting their family in what is an unimaginable time."
He also said: "At this stage we believe they were trying to help a seven-year-old boy who had got into difficulties." The statement from Essex police left the sequence clear: the rescue attempt came first, then the adults and child were pulled into danger, and the boy was later taken to hospital.
Matiur Rahman family accounts
Matiur Rahman, Shalina Rahman's brother-in-law, said the family had been out for the day and that about 10 family members were involved. "We all feel very bad, my four brothers, my sister … My whole family – we are speechless. We are very shocked," he said.
He also said: "They went in Colchester, [to the] seaside, and they were near water and playing with them, then suddenly a big wave came," describing the moment the outing changed. That account matches the police belief that the incident began with a child in difficulty and a family member trying to help.
Seaview cafe witnesses
Carl Powling said his daughter was one of three teenage waitresses at Seaview cafe who tried to help after members of the public saw what was happening. He said: "Members of the public witnessed it, called the emergency services, helped starting to pull people out, then they went into the Seaview cafe to ask for assistance," linking the first calls for help to the beach response.
A PA Media source described the tide as fast-moving and said, "It comes in very quickly and you have to be careful," while another account said there was "quite a commotion" and "just total panic." The same source said the scene at high tide caught the small group on a sandbank, which fits the heavy incoming tide described by people at the beach.
Essex police said all the people involved in the incident are related to each other. That detail, along with the family and witness accounts, shows why the case is now being treated as a beach tragedy rather than a single rescue call: investigators are building the full sequence of how a day out turned into a death in the water.
