A six-year-old girl has died after emergency services were called to a seaside town amid concerns for a child in the sea.

The girl, from Erith, was taken to hospital from Margate Harbour on Saturday afternoon.

The South East Coast Ambulance Service and the RNLI were part of the rescue effort.

A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said the girl had been taken to the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in a serious condition.

Kent Police confirmed in a statement on Sunday that she had died.

The force added: “Her next of kin have been informed.

“There are no suspicious circumstances and a report is being prepared for the coroner.”

Clacton Pier
The RNLI during a search near Clacton Pier in Essex (Nick Ansell/PA)

One local man said the beach was “heaving” with tourists on what he described as a warm but windy day.

He said he saw the emergency services “swarm” the harbour in their effort to rescue the girl.

The father-of-three, who did not want to give his name, said he found the incident “very upsetting”.

He added: “(It) makes me want to avoid going in the water.”

It is the latest death in recent days concerning people in difficulty in water.

Two bodies were recovered on Saturday in separate incidents.

The body of a 15-year-old teenager, provisionally named as Ben Quartermaine, was found near Clacton Pier in Essex after a search which began on Thursday.

In Bedfordshire the body of a man in his late 20s was recovered from the Great Ouse river after reports someone had got into difficulty there on Friday afternoon.