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Five experienced surfers drowned after going out for a session in stormy weather that whipped up thick sea foam off a popular Dutch beach, officials said Tuesday.
Dutch authorities said a group of six surfers jumped into the sea late Monday at Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague on the North Sea, and were later reported missing.
"When a group of people went surfing early in the evening, no one expected that some would not come home,” The Hague Mayor Johan Remkes said in a statement.
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The Dutch Coast Guard said three people were rescued Monday night, two of whom were later pronounced dead.
Two additional bodies were found Tuesday morning, while a fifth body was seen floating in the waters as it was drifting out of reach.
Five surfers died after getting caught in the rough ocean and facing thick sea foam near the coastal town of Scheveningen, Netherlands, on May 11, 2020. (SEM VAN DER WAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Officials said Tuesday the group likely couldn’t deal with the combination of heavy weather, northerly winds and swells that hit the Dutch coast.
An additional problem was an excessively thick layer of sea foam that drifted on the North Sea waters by the beaches.
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Officials and witnesses told Agence France-Presse the conditions created "avalanche-like” sea foam along the coast.
The sea foam was reported to be so thick that it was especially difficult to get back on their boards to return to shore if they fell off, surfers told the Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau news agency.
Remkes said it was still too early to exactly say what caused the tragedy, especially since the surfers had plenty of experience to assess the dangers of the waters.
The Hague’s “alternative mayor” Pat Smith told Den Haag FM radio station that two of the surfers were internationally trained lifeguards that had worked in Australia.
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“They were busy training," he said Tuesday. "They then disappeared under the foam like it was some sort of avalanche.”
The age of the victims was between 22 and 38 and they all lived nearby.
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Residents in Scheveningen have already begun mourning the surfers, laying wreaths in seaside areas, according to The New York Times.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea foam forms when the organic and artificial matter in the ocean is agitated by wind and waves.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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