The 10 secondary school leavers, aged between 14 and 15, went to swim at the beach to celebrate the completion of their West African Senior School Examination.

They were said to be pupils of the Kuramo Senior College, Lekki.

The spokesperson for the Elegushi Beach Management, Chief Ayuba Elegushi, in a statement on Tuesday, said the pupils were not properly registered.

He noted that the incident happened at an unmanned section of the beach not open to the public.

He said, “We initially sent them away from the area of the beach they wanted to swim in. Then, they went to another place that was not for the public at all. It was the child of our kinsman, Abass, who took them from school to the beach and those kids followed him.

“They did not pay any gate fee to access the beach. Abass used the leverage that he was one of us to take them through another place.”

The victims were said to have raised the alarm as the water swept them away.

Elegushi said some life guards plunged into the water and brought out six of the pupils.

“Out of the six that were rescued, some escaped by the time we got there. We were able to arrest two of them and we took them to the Jakande Police Station .