Ten people were pulled from the sea at Bournemouth Beach during an incident where two children sadly died.
Emergency services were call to the water at around 4.30pm on Wednesday. A boy, aged 17, and a 12-year-old girl sustained "critical injuries" and later died in hospital. Eight other people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Farrell said a total of 10 people had to be rescued from the water.
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She said: "I would sincerely like to thank members of the public who helped people in trouble in the water.
“I’m also very grateful to the wider beach-goers who really quickly moved from the beach and allowed emergency services to do their work."
ACC Farrell added there is “no suggestion” of people jumping from Bournemouth pier or of jet skis being involved in the incident.
She said officers are investigating the “circumstances or event” that caused a number of people to get into difficulty in the water and that one person has been arrested.
She said: “Following our initial inquiries, a man aged in his 40s who was on the water at the time, has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
“As we have a person in custody, you will know there is only limited information I can give about the investigation.
“However, to avoid further speculation, I am able to tell you that it’s clear that yesterday a number of people already in the water got into difficulty and we are investigating the circumstances or event that caused that to happen.
“Early investigation indicates that there was no physical contact between a vessel and any of the swimmers at the time of the incident.
“I can also confirm there is no suggestion of people jumping from the pier or jet-skis being involved.”
She urged people not to speculate about what happened, adding that people should send any images to police rather than sharing on social media.
ACC Farrell told the press conference: “As you can imagine, we are at the early stages of our investigation, and we would ask people not to speculate about the circumstances surrounding the incident to both protect our inquiries and out of respect for the victims and their families.
“We are aware of a number of videos circulating on social media and we would urge people to refrain from doing this.
“We know the beach was very busy when the incident occurred. I am today urging anyone who saw what happened or has any information that may assist to please come forward.
“If anyone has relevant phone footage then they can contact Dorset Police through our major incident public portal where they can upload the images and we will share the links on social media.
“This operation is named Operation Marble. So please share the images with the police rather than on social media."
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident has been launched with Dorset Police working alongside the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police at www.dorset.police.uk or by calling 101, quoting occurrence number 55230083818. Alternatively, independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously online at Crimestoppers-uk.org or by calling Freephone 0800 555 111.
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