Abigail Hunt

A teenage girl and a woman in her forties died after several people got into difficulty in the water near Seaview Avenue at West Mersea beach in Essex. Emergency services responded on Wednesday evening, with one person remaining in serious condition in hospital and two others treated for non‑life‑threatening injuries. Essex Police and emergency teams confirmed the deaths and appealed for witnesses to help establish what happened, while ambulance crews detailed the deployment of air and road resources to the scene.

Two children aged nine and seven died after being thrown from a Tidewater Custom 280 when it struck a channel marker on the Intercoastal Waterway near Berkeley Township, New Jersey. Boat operator Stephen Schneider and passenger Laurie Schneider found the children unresponsive before they were pronounced dead at a hospital. New Jersey State Police are investigating. A separate incident near Bordeaux Airport involved a large blaze that killed two firefighters and temporarily halted flights.

Armed police responded to reports of a person carrying a weapon near schools in Hersham, Surrey, leading to two 18‑year‑old men being arrested and three educational sites entering temporary lockdown before reopening safely. Surrey Police confirmed swift response times and ongoing investigations. Separately, Anthony Durkan from Islington pleaded guilty to 26 voyeurism offences as the Metropolitan Police appealed for additional potential victims to come forward after discovering extensive image and video evidence.

Three asylum seekers were sentenced at Hove Crown Court for the rape of a vulnerable woman on Brighton beach, with two receiving 21-year jail terms and the third 18 years and six months for filming and encouraging the assault. The court heard that the men targeted the woman while she was incapacitated, subjected her to violence and humiliation, and later denied wrongdoing during the trial. The prosecution described their behaviour as predatory and devoid of remorse, while the victim detailed the lasting trauma of the attack. Ministers have pledged to deport the offenders following their sentences.

A convicted ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, Shabir Ahmed, has been released from prison but cannot be deported despite having his British citizenship revoked. The Immigration Act 1971 prevents deportation of Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973, and Pakistan will not accept Ahmed after he renounced his citizenship. He will live in the UK under strict conditions including curfews, electronic monitoring, and exclusion zones, with victims notified of his release. Government efforts to deport him have been exhausted, and the Home Office states he will remain on the sex offenders register for life.