Sinead Moodliar, 19, was swept out to sea on sunrise beach visit while on holiday over Christmas

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

British university student Sinead Moodliar, who went to witness the sunrise on a South African beach, died after a powerful wave swept her from a rock and out to sea, an inquest has heard.

Moodliar, 19, a philosophy student at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, was on holiday over Christmas last year. She went to Umhlanga Rocks, a beach area near Durban, on Boxing Day when she was involved in an incident that could not have been foreseen, a hearing was told yesterday.

Cambridgeshire’s senior coroner, David Heming, said: “This is a tragic, catastrophic accident. Sinead had gone to a beach area to witness the sunrise. While standing on a rocky area, a powerful wave washed her into the sea.”

People on the beach reported hearing screams at 5.15am. Moodliar was dragged from the water by lifeguards, and paramedics resuscitated her but she died in hospital on 27 December.

The inquest was attended by her parents Bob and Noeleen Moodliar, of Wilburton near Ely. Moodliar said he took a flight from the UK to South Africa as soon as he heard his daughter was involved in an accident but she died before he could arrive. He said she had been standing on a rock when the wave took her.

“She was just allowing the sea to wash over her feet when this happened,” he said. “One wave came and engulfed her and the backwash took her into the sea.”

He said that a witness reported seeing his daughter struggling 35 metres out when another wave took her.

He said lifeguards were due to start their shift at 6am but had arrived early as they were expecting large numbers of people on Boxing Day, so were able to try to save his daughter.

Heming said the “ferocious turbulence of the sea” washed Moodliar from the rock.

A postmortem examination, conducted in Durban, recorded Moodliar’s cause of death as complications following near-drowning. It noted a head injury consistent with striking a rock as she fell and lung damage.

Heming said: “These are unforeseen incidents that nobody ever caters for.” He recorded a conclusion of accidental death.