A Brighton university student has been named as one of the men who died at Camber Sands yesterday. 

Nitharsan Ravi, 22, was one of five friends who drowned at the popular beach yesterday afternoon. 

Friend Charles Bosco, 27, from west London, said he had known Mr Ravi since the age of 10, and described him as a "lovely guy".

He said: "We are family friends. My mum told me this morning. Obviously yesterday we heard five guys had drowned but we didn't know it was him and four of his friends. It was a real shock.

"We went to Tamil school together and we always bumped into each other. My mum has gone to visit his family now. They have gone to Woolwich to give support."

Mr Bosco described Mr Ravi as a "fun, bubbly guy". And he added: "No one could say a bad word about him. I saw him two months back in church when we went on a pilgrimage.

"We go on a pilgrimage to Walsingham for a Tamil festival every year. He is a lovely guy who cares for his family. He is a social guy. Every time I saw him he would immediately come and talk to me.

"Everyone is in shock. People are calling me saying how could it have happened."

Another three of the five men - all aged in their late teens and early 20s and from London - have been named by friends as Inthushan Sri, and Kobi and Ken Nathan.

In tribute to Mr Sri, Ranu Kumar wrote on Facebook: "Was one of the best genuine, one of my closest cousins in UK."

The five men had gone to the coast for a day trip, according to Sussex Police, as investigations continued in to what caused their deaths.

The first three men died despite efforts by medics to save them after being pulled from the sea near Rye at about 2.15pm on Wednesday.

Later in the evening a beach-goer found two bodies. 

It was feared a sixth person was missing but there was no search operation at the beach on Thursday and day-trippers were continuing to arrive.

A spokesman for Rother District Council said that, despite there being no lifeguards, there are summer patrols to advise people of potential dangers, reunite lost children with their families and deal with incidents on the beach.

"While it's very upsetting to see two similar, tragic incidents this summer, over the years these kind of incidents are extremely rare and on a fine day around 25,000 people use the beach safely," he said.

"Although it's too early to draw any conclusions from this latest incident, in recent years we have seen a change in the make-up of visitors to Camber, including more people from outside the area who are not familiar with the sea and the dangers it can pose."