Hundreds of mourners gathered in Plumstead for the funeral of five young friends from south-east London who died during a day trip to the beach at Camber Sands.
Kenugen Saththiyanathan, 18, known as Ken, and his brother Kobikanthan Saththiyanathan, 22, known as Kobi, from Erith, died after getting into difficulty in the sea last month.
Their friends Nitharsan Ravi, 22, from Plumstead, Inthushan Sriskantharasa, 23, from Essex, and Gurushanth Srithavarajah, 27, from Welling also died.
A Hindu ceremony and petal laying took place at Winn's Common in King's Highway early yesterday morning.
Hundreds gathered on Plumstead Common for the funeral.
Following the deaths, relatives of some of the men criticised the lack of lifeguards at Camber Sands, and suggested they may have stood a chance of survival if the beach had been manned.
People speaking on behalf of the grieving families at the dawn service addressed the crowd, mostly speaking in Tamil - the language of the community the boys came from.
MP for Eltham Clive Efford also spoke briefly, saying: "Questions need to be asked about how we arrange safety on our beaches."
Sai Yoghananthan, from the Camber Sands Boys Funeral Committee, said: "Nothing like this can ever happen again."
Relatives and friends wept as the coffins were carried into marquee tents, before mourners walked around and paid their respects.
Top L-R Ken Saththiyanathan, Nitharsan Ravi. Bottom L-R Gurushanth Srithavarajah, Kobi Saththiyanathan and Inthushan Sriskantharasa. Pictures: Facebook/SWNS.
What happened was "a big tragedy for the Tamil community", said councillor Krishna Suresh, former mayor of Harrow.
Cllr Suresh said that as well as being well educated, the young men - who enjoyed football and cricket - had "lots of extra talents".
The men played sport with the Jaffna 11 club which plays cricket in the British Tamil Cricket League.
Subash Vettivelu who had known the victims for a long time through the club said they were all "very, very friendly" and "very good players".
The group of friends travelled from London to the south coast to enjoy the beach on the hottest day of the year.
Nitharsan’s younger brother, Ajirthan, 19, said his sibling had died after trying to rescue two of his friends who had become trapped underneath the water.
It is believed Ken and Inthushan were pulled into deep water by a rip current when the other three attempted to save them.
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