Five people have died in the sea off Camber Sands in Sussex.
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The Dungeness and Rye lifeboats together with the coastguard helicopter from Lydd are involved in the search.
It was prompted by a call from a worker in the beach office just before 9.30am who reported “a woman who had entered the water some 40 minutes earlier did not appear to have returned”, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.
Two more bodies – also believed to be wearing shorts and T-shirts – were found washed up by a walker as the tide went out that night.
Police said they all died at the scene despite efforts to save them.
Tom said: “I felt anxious for whoever was out at sea”.
She said police drove on to the beach with a loudspeaker telling people not to go into the water until further notice, and also taped off “a huge chunk of the beach so no-one could get near it”.
Little McKayla Bruynius, 2, and her dad Rudy died after they were swept into the sea at Fistral Beach, Newquay as her mum watched on.
“We don’t know what condition they were in”.
An RNLI spokesman said: “In response to recent tragic events at Camber Sands, the RNLI is working with Rother District Council to provide reassurance to the public by providing a temporary RNLI lifeguard service which will work alongside the existing local authority personnel”.
An RNLI spokesperson said the search for the “potentially missing swimmer” was being co-ordinated by Sussex Police and the coastguard, and that their lifeguards were keeping watch from the beach with binoculars.
“There are no deep shelves there and the beach is known to be very, very safe”, they told The Independent.
Mr Ravi said the police were able to work out who had died because his brother’s vehicle was the only one left in the auto park at the end of the day.
Tom said that he feels very relieved that none of Milly’s family got into trouble, as they were in the company of about 10 children. “There was no waves and no wind”.
Rev Canon David Frost said that these events can not stop people enjoying the beach.
Skegness RNLI has joined others lifeboat crews across the country in urging the public to respect the water following the death of five swimmers at Camber Sands yesterday.
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Paula Day, 49, from the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, said: “The first thing we saw was a helicopter flying really low”.
