Police name three members of one family who died after entering the sea near Shoreham Fort

Three members of the same family died after getting into difficulty in the sea off Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex on Tuesday afternoon. They have been named as Hassan El-Khawas, 55, his partner Zeina Alayn, 37, and their 14-year-old daughter, Sara El-Khawas.

A fourth family member, a younger girl, was brought out of the water alive and remains in hospital in a critical condition. Emergency services were called at about 2.40pm to reports of four people in difficulty close to Shoreham Fort, at the mouth of Shoreham Harbour.

At a glance

• Three members of one family died after entering the sea near Shoreham Fort on Tuesday 18 August
• They have been named as Hassan El-Khawas, 55, Zeina Alayn, 37, and Sara El-Khawas, 14
• A fourth family member, a young girl, remains in hospital in a critical condition
• Emergency services were called at about 2.40pm to reports of four people in difficulty
• Police, paramedics, coastguard teams and an RNLI lifeboat crew brought all four ashore
• Sussex Police say the deaths are currently thought to be a tragic accident with no third-party involvement

The response on Tuesday afternoon

Police officers were supported by paramedics, coastguard teams and an RNLI lifeboat crew, and all four people were brought ashore. Three were pronounced dead on Tuesday. The fourth, a young girl, was taken to hospital, where she was still in a critical condition when the three who died were named on Wednesday.

The family had travelled from London to spend the day at the coast. The stretch of shore beside Shoreham Fort sits immediately west of the harbour entrance, where the beach shelves into a channel used by commercial shipping.

A report of people in difficulty in the water triggers a coordinated response rather than a single one: HM Coastguard tasks lifeboat and shore teams, the ambulance service sends resources to the nearest access point, and police manage the scene on land. That is what happened here, and it is why all four were recovered from the water within the same operation.

Who the family were

Hassan El-Khawas was a Palestinian refugee from the Rashidieh camp in southern Lebanon, a detail reported by Brighton and Hove News and carried by The National and Al Jazeera. He had settled in Britain and was living in London with his partner and their daughters.

Beyond those details, little has been published about the family's private circumstances, and formal identification is a matter for the coroner rather than for the reporting.

Naming the dead this quickly is itself a decision taken with relatives rather than around them. Police forces release names once next of kin have been informed and the family are content for them to be published, which is why the three were identified on Wednesday rather than on the afternoon they died.

What the police have said

Chief Superintendent James Collis of Sussex Police described the events of Tuesday afternoon as a heartbreaking tragedy that has devastated a family. The force said its investigation remains open, but that after a review of CCTV footage and initial witness accounts it is currently thought the deaths were a tragic accident, with no third-party involvement.

That assessment matters procedurally as well as publicly. It means the force is not treating the deaths as suspicious, and its work now runs alongside the coroner's rather than as a criminal investigation. Sussex Police said it is working with HM Coroner to establish exactly how the incident happened.

What happens next

Because the deaths were sudden and unnatural, they must be reported to the coroner, who has a legal duty to investigate. In practice that means officers compile a file, an inquest is opened and then adjourned while evidence is gathered, and a full hearing follows months later. An inquest establishes who died, and where, when and how — not blame.

Until then the account that stands is the one the police have given: four members of one family entered the water, all four were recovered, and three of them died. The surviving child's condition is the immediate concern, and the force has not indicated any change to its assessment that no other person was involved.