Two men and a woman were caught in a rip current in the sea off Mawgan Porth beach near Newquay around 1.30pm on Sunday.
A air and sea rescue mission was launched when onlookers spotted a group of seven, including four children, in difficulty in the water.
The woman, aged about 30, was surfing with the men, one in his mid-20s and the other in his 50s. They were recovered unconscious from the water but later pronounced dead. The four children were rescued and were safe, police said.
Supt Jim Pearce, of Devon and Cornwall police, said: “This is a tragic incident and our condolences go out to the families of those involved. Along with the other emergency services we are now working to ascertain the full circumstances of this incident and our priority is to contact the families of those involved and offer all the support we can.”Locals said there were rough seas along the coast on Sunday afternoon. Peter Abell, owner of the Kingsurf surf school at Mawgan Porth – which was not involved in the incident – said some currents were “slightly more dangerous than usual” but conditions were “not as bad” as they could be. “The waves were bigger, they were quite big. And it wasn’t the safest of days to be in the sea,” he said.
“But it wasn’t particularly dangerous. There were lots of safe places to be and they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Abell, 30, believed the group that got into difficulty were probably tourists. He said beaches were always changing and parts of Mawgan Porth were always safe, adding: “You can never predict this.”
Describing the scene as emergency services started to arrive, Abell said: “I’ve never seen so many police cars and coastguards arrive at the beach before. Everyone was standing around the beach going ‘Oh my God what’s going on?’.
“There were two helicopters and three lifeboats … so we knew it was a big deal as soon as we saw that.”
A spokesman at the Merrymoor Inn, which overlooks the beach, praised the response of emergency services: “The emergency services were here incredibly quickly. They brought some of them into the pub wrapped in blankets but it is terrible, what has happened.”
It is not known whether the group were tourists or locals and whether they were experienced surfers or not. Inexperienced surfers can place themselves at risk in a rip current if they exhaust themselves swimming against the flow or panic.
It is unclear whether the water was being watched by lifeguards at the time of the incident; they usually operate on the beach between April and September.
A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said a search and rescue mission was launched at 1.31pm when onlookers noticed the group in difficulty.
RNLI lifeboats and a rescue helicopter, along with Devon and Cornwall police officers and a South West ambulance service crew attended the scene.
Two of the three recovered from the water were given CPR at the scene before they were airlifted to hospital.
Mawgan Porth is popular with surfers, who flock to the beach for waves known as Atlantic breakers, and with walkers taking the idyllic coastal path.
