Six-year-old girl dies days after UK seaside tragedy kills family

Saja El-Khawas had been in critical condition since Tuesday’s drowning at Shoreham

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Representational image. Sussex Police said CCTV and witness accounts indicated the deaths were a tragic accident.
Representational image. Sussex Police said CCTV and witness accounts indicated the deaths were a tragic accident.

A six-year-old girl from a British-Palestinian family has died in hospital after a seaside drowning tragedy that claimed the lives of her sister and parents, UK police said.

Saja El-Khawas had been in hospital in a critical condition since the incident on Tuesday at Shoreham on the southern English coast. She died on Friday.

Her father, a Palestinian refugee from the Rashidieh Camp in Lebanon, mother and 14-year-old sister were all pronounced dead after being pulled from the sea by emergency services.

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The family are believed to have travelled to the beach at Shoreham from their home in London.

A review of CCTV footage and witness testimony indicated the deaths were the result of a "tragic accident", Sussex Police said in a statement late on Friday.

The Palestinian Forum in Britain said the family were British citizens of Palestinian origin "with roots in the Rashidieh refugee camp in Lebanon".

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