This is tragic!
I know how it happens. I was standing on a beach in Hawaii looking at a small waves lap up on the sand. All of a sudden the water sucked back into a huge wave. I turned and ran but it caught me at about hip deep before I could get away. The suction of the water was unbelievable. I was lucky these people were not.
I’ve really only been in the water at Galveston, where the current just seems to pull you parallel to the beach, but that current is unbelievably strong.