DUBAI // Family and friends paid tribute to a newlywed man who they said drowned in a rip tide at the weekend as residents called for improved safety measures to protect against dangerous currents.
Crismon Thomas, 28, from Kerala, was swimming with friends about 2pm on Saturday when he encountered trouble.
Binoy Stephen, a colleague, said friends had tried in vain to help after Mr Thomas was caught by a rip tide. Relatives and friends said he was not a strong swimmer.
"He raised the alarm for help, but he could not be rescued in time. Someone at the beach tried to pull him to safety, but he was dead by then," said Mr Stephen, the human resources manager at Bosco Aluminium and Glass Company in Sharjah.
Mr Thomas, a sales manager at Bosco since 2007, married only six months ago. Relatives said his wife, a nurse at a private hospital, was not present when he drowned.
On the same day Mr Thomas died one Dubai resident said he and a friend pulled out more than 10 struggling people from the water at Jumeirah Beach Residence Beach.
David Capps, a delivery manager at an Abu Dhabi firm, said he had witnessed too many swimmers fall prey to dangerous currents and said warning flags were needed to alert people to rip tides. "They should put up flags on either side of a rip current," he said.
"I don't think beaches should be closed altogether, but they should ban swimming in the immediate area of an active rip current.
"We need trained patrols on the beaches to spot rip currents and help pull people out in an emergency."
Mr Capps said people often did not know how to spot such currents or handle them. When he and his friend intervened, he said, there were strong currents and big waves.
"We watched countless people walk straight into the unmarked rip current and on four separate occasions we had to run in to retrieve swimmers in extreme distress," the Australian said.
"Some were screaming for their lives and were moments from drowning after having been swept out 30 metres and trying in vain to swim back in.
"We pulled in 10 people and another guy brought in five or six [people] in two hours."
A senior lifeguard at Dubai Municipality said the seas were rough on Saturday and they had to close half of the Jumeirah Open Beach because of the bad weather.
"We asked tourists to keep away from the beach because of the rough sea conditions," Majdi Tag said. He said the municipality had 33 lifeguards manning different beaches in Dubai, including Al Mamzar, Jumeirah Park and Jumeirah Open Beach. He said there were no lifeguards at other areas, such as Umm Suqeim beach near Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Residence Beach, and Dubai Marina.
"It is advised for people to swim in beaches where there are lifeguards. They should also follow the flag unfurled. People should not swim when there is a red flag," he said.
Mr Thomas's friends and relatives said the incident occurred in the Dubai Marina area, but Mr Stephen said it was Jumeirah Open Beach. A witness identified the location as Jumeirah Beach Residence Beach. Dubai police were not immediately available to provide details.
Jomi Thomas, the drowned man's cousin, said when he heard of the incident he went to Rashid Hospital and was devastated to see Mr Thomas's body. He said Mr Thomas had two sisters and parents who were living in India.
"We are shocked over his death. He was a very good person," he said. The body was sent to India on Monday for final rites to be performed.
In March, three men drowned due to rough sea conditions, forcing police to close the beaches as a safety precaution. Two of the men drowned opposite Jumeirah Beach Residence at Dubai Marina and the third died near the Burj Al Arab.
Residents have regularly pressed for increased lifeguards on beaches, signboards with diagrams and tips on currents. Earlier this year, Surf Dubai, a surfing institute, launched a campaign to educate people on the different currents.
If swimmers find themselves caught in a rip tide they should swim parallel to the beach to first escape the rip, then swim to shore to avoid exhaustion and being pulled farther out to sea.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
'Skin'
Dir: Guy Nattiv
Starring: Jamie Bell, Danielle McDonald, Bill Camp, Vera Farmiga
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
STAGE%201%20RESULTS
%3Cp%3E1)%20Tim%20Merlier%20(Soudal-Quick-Step)%2C%203h%2017%E2%80%99%2035%E2%80%9D%3Cbr%3E2)%20Caleb%20Ewan%20(Lotto%20Dstny)%20same%20time%3Cbr%3E3)%20Mark%20Cavendish%20(Astana%20Qazaqstan%20Team)%20same%20time%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EGeneral%20Classification%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3E1)%20Tim%20Merlier%20(Soudal%20Quick-Step)%203%3A17%3A25%3Cbr%3E2%20-%20Caleb%20Ewan%20(Lotto%20Dstny)%20%2B4%22%3Cbr%3E3%20-%20Luke%20Plapp%20(Ineos%20Grenadiers)%20%2B5%22%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
Sun jukebox
Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)
This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.
Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)
The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)
Originally recorded for Sun, Cash’s signature tune was performed for inmates of the titular prison 13 years later.
Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)
Within a month of Sun’s February release Elvis had his version out on RCA.
Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)
An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)
Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
