Three tourists died and two others went missing after strong currents swept them away while they were bathing at Himchari beach in Cox's Bazar on Wednesday afternoon, police said. Another member of the group was rescued alive and taken to hospital.

Soleiman, who heads the Himchari police outpost, said several tourists had entered the sea near the museum beside Marina Resort when the current pulled them out. Local residents began a rescue operation and recovered several people. Three were declared dead after being taken to hospital, he said. Police and local volunteers were still searching the water for the two missing tourists in the evening.

Ramu Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Jillur Rahman also confirmed the deaths. He told Bangla Tribune that the tourists were carried away by the waves and that a rescue operation was under way. Reports put the incident in the late afternoon, though accounts of the exact time differed slightly.

The identities of the dead and the missing had not been released on Wednesday night. Police said names would be disclosed after their families had been informed. It was also not clear how many people were in the group, whether any of them were children, or which districts they came from. The condition of the rescued tourist was not immediately available.

Himchari lies about 12 kilometres south of Cox's Bazar town, where hills run down to the sea and the beach is a short drive from the main tourist strip. It is one of the most visited spots on the roughly 120-kilometre coastline, and the stretch attracts crowds during holidays and festivals.

Most of that coastline has no lifeguard cover. The chief of the district administration's beach workers, Belal Uddin, told Bangla Tribune in June that 27 lifeguards and 37 beach workers were deployed along the five-kilometre stretch from Kalatoli to Laboni point. The remaining 115 kilometres to the south, taking in Himchari, Darianagar, Inani, Patuartek, Bahrarchhara and Teknaf, had little or no rescue capacity, he said.

Belal Uddin said at the time that the administration ran campaigns warning people not to bathe in the sea in bad weather, but that tourists often ignored the warnings and entered the water at unprotected spots. Wednesday's deaths raised the same question again: whether warning flags and patrols were in place at the Himchari section when the group went in. Neither the police outpost chief nor the UNO said on Wednesday whether lifeguards were on duty there, or whether red flags had been posted.

The coast has a record of similar accidents. In June, a 22-year-old tourist went missing after he was swept away at Inani, and another tourist drowned at Segal point in Cox's Bazar town on 31 May, Bangla Tribune reported at the time. In the June case, the missing tourist's friend said there were no lifeguards, police officers or other people nearby when the current took him.

Rescue work at Himchari on Wednesday was carried out by local residents and police, according to the outpost chief. It was not clear whether fire service divers or other specialised teams had joined the operation. The search was continuing on Wednesday night.

For the families, the immediate wait is for identification and for news of the two still in the water. For the district administration, the case again puts attention on the long unguarded stretches of beach, where visitor numbers have grown while rescue services have stayed small. Belal Uddin said in June that tourists were ignoring warnings at unprotected spots, and that the administration could not station rescuers along the whole coast.

What happens next depends on the search and on whether the administration reviews safety at Himchari. Police have not said whether they will file a case or order an inquiry into how the group entered the water. The names of the dead and missing, and the exact sequence of events, are still to be confirmed.