A 31-year-old woman who got into difficulties while bathing in the sea at Camber, near Rye, on Saturday (July 28) has died in hospital.

Tanzeela Ajmal of Tisbury Road, Norbury, was in a group of four people who were on the beach on Saturday afternoon. Emergency services were called around 4.40pm and paramedics were joined by police and members of Rother District Council's Coastal Control Officer's beach patrol in treating the group.

Mrs Ajmal was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital at Brighton, where she died on Wednesday evening (August 1).

Three others, also from the Croydon area, were taken to the Conquest Hospital at Hastings, two of them in a critical condition with suspected lung problems from water ingestion and hypothermia. However, they recovered and were discharged from hospital on Sunday.

PCSO Dan Bevan, who was on duty on the beach as part of the joint Sussex Police/Rother DC Operation Radcott, which runs on busy days throughout the summer, said: "This is desperately sad news. We were in the Coastal Control Office when the alarm was raised and a team was with Tanzeela in less than a minute. Out thoughts are with her family and friends at this time."