Two men died after drinking heavily and jumping off a pier in a "tombstoning" stunt, an inquest heard.

Seconds before John Castleman, 48, of Beach Road, Clacton, and Kelvin Rothwell, 43, of Humber Avenue, Jaywick, jumped off Clacton Pier, an assistant pier manager had spent ten minutes trying to convince them not to take the plunge.

At an inquest yesterday in Chelmsford, Ian Douglas Hooper said after warning them, he turned to go and heard two splashes.

Mr Castleman and Mr Rothwell, of Clacton, had followed four others into the sea at 6.15pm on July 7 last year in an act known as tombstoning.

Phil Sitch, coroner's officer, said: "They were swept underneath the pier and drifted out to sea."

Once Mr Hooper had spotted the two men, they were too far out for him to help, and he called emergency services and a lifeboat rescue team.

Mr Hooper had helped with cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

He said: "They were well oiled."

Temporary Insp Vincent Osborne, who was a sergeant at Harwich at the time, said one member of the public had swum out to rescue them, but could not reach them.

The men had been 250 metres from the pier, he said.

The pair were airlifted to Colchester General Hospital, where Mr Castleman died on arrival.

Mr Rothwell was comatose and died five days later on July 12.

Dr Jolanta McKenzie, deputy coroner, praised Mr Hooper: "It would appear that these individuals were under the influence of alcohol and did what they did without any regard to your warning.

"It's commendable that you made such a hard effort at resuscitation."

A toxicology report found that Mr Castleman had 292 mg of alcohol in his blood, three-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit.

A post-mortem examination had given Kelvin Rothwell's cause of death as immersion in sea water.

Dr McKenzie returned verdicts of accidental death for both men.