One dead in pier prank - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

One dead in pier prank

A middle-aged man drowned after he and four friends leapt into the sea off a pier.

A second man was in a stable condition in a hospital's intensive care unit after the drink-fuelled prank went wrong .

Coastguards said the two men - both believed to be in their 40s - were found face-down in the sea by lifeboat crews after jumping off a pier at Clacton, Essex, on Saturday.

Sources said witnesses had told investigators that the five men had been drinking and leapt in at around 6.30pm.

The men were thought to have jumped off the pier fully-clothed about an hour after high tide.

Police said they were not treating the incident as suspicious but were preparing a report for a coroner.

"The report was of five middle-aged men jumping off Clacton Pier into the sea," said a spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

"Two men were reported to be unconscious in the water."

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