Signs on beach where Dewsbury teen brothers drowned were out of date inquest hears

Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, sadly died after they were dragged underwater in the rapidly rising tide near St Anne's pier on Aug 15, 2020.

Blackpool Town Hall how the brothers, who had a 'limited swimming ability', were seen struggling in the water shortly after 6pm.

Despite multiple 999 calls from family members and passers-by, it took approximately 40 minutes for lifeboats to arrive at the scene as crews struggled to locate them.

Further investigation from Lancashire police revealed that signposts showing tide times in the area were out of date, the inquest heard.

A sign from Fylde Council, located at the car park near the Monteray Beach Hotel where the Shabbir family parked, should have displayed the times for August, but instead showed the times for June and July.

The person usually responsible for updating the sign was on leave at the time of the tragedy, and no arrangements had been made for a replacement during this time.

Ian Curtis, head of governance at Fylde Borough Council, accepted that the tide timetables displayed were out-of-date.

But told the court he did not accept that the incorrect timetable contributed to the brothers' deaths.

Their mum, Taseem Shabbir, told the court how she stood on the phone to emergency services for around 40 minutes as the coastguard struggled to pinpoint their location.

She said: "Obviously there's nobody to blame here, but I don't know why it took so long for emergency services to arrive and why they couldn't understand where we were."

The brothers travelled from their home in Dewsbury, West Yorks., to St Annes from with family on the tragic day.

The court heard how they had gone into the sea with their 15-year-old cousin, Hamza, several times that day.

At around 6pm the three boys went into the water for one last paddle before returning home.

But when they tried to make their way back to shore, they found that the rising tide had filled gullies behind them.

Hamza was able to make it back to shore, but Muhammad and Ali disappeared beneath the waves as their family and passers-by tried to save them.

One witness, Joshua Nawab, ventured into the water to attempt to rescue the boys, who he said were about 10 to 15m away from dry land, but he was unable to reach them.

Another witness, Dr Amjad Kapadi, called for an ambulance as he said: "The young boy (Hamza) was quite wet and distressed, and I was worried he might be having a hypothermic attack."

Hamza was taken to hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia.

On the beach, the coastguard and RNLI crews from Blackpool, Lytham and Southport continued to search for Muhammad and Ali.

They stood down several hours later.

The following day at around 3.20pm, the bodies of the two brothers were found about 20m from each other near the pier.

A post mortem found they had both drowned.

Giving a conclusion of accidental death Coroner Andrew Cousins said that Muhammad and Ali had been 'lulled into a false sense of security' by the landscape of the beach.