Three people were killed and another three were injured on Sunday (December 7) after being swept into rough seas in Tenerife. All those affected were tourists who had crossed police tape to reach the area where the tragedy occurred, the local mayor has claimed.

The tragic incident occurred around 4pm on Sunday afternoon at a natural pool known as Crab Island Pool, also colloquially referred to as Los Gigantes natural pool, located on Tenerife's western coast. In January, a British holidaymaker died at the landmark natural rock pool after being swept into the sea.

A 60-year-old was one of three people who got into difficulties and was found face-down in the sea and rushed to a nearby football ground by helicopter, where efforts to revive him proved unsuccessful. Emilio Navarro, mayor of the municipality of Santiago del Teide, where the natural pool near the four-star Barceló Santiago Hotel is located, confirmed overnight that the younger victims were from Italy and Slovakia and stated that there was an older group also consisting of holidaymakers.

He also claimed that they had all accessed an area that had been declared out of bounds due to rough sea conditions, where a pre-alert warning was in place to warn locals and visitors about tidal surges, especially in the north and west of Tenerife.

Officials on the holiday island have yet to detail the nationalities of the victims but say two men died, one aged 35, along with a 55-year-old woman. They say another woman went into cardiac arrest at the scene before being revived and taken to hospital by air ambulance.

Dramatic footage showed a helicopter winching one of the casualties away from the scene, although it was not immediately clear if emergency responders were recovering a body or rescuing one of the survivors.

Mayor Navarro told a local TV station: "All those hurt or killed were tourists. There's a group that was younger, Slovakians and Italians, and there was another group all tourists, who had crossed the tape that had been put by local police or Civil Guard who have been working all week in this area and at other points along the coast.

"It's impossible at times to make people understand the dangers of the ocean. The tape has to be replaced several times a day in some cases because it gets broken and people even insult police because they don't want to leave."

The latest tragedy happened nearly a month to the day after three people died and 15 were injured in Tenerife after being swept out to sea by high waves. Most were tourists, with the worst incident in the northern port city of Puerto de la Cruz resulting in a 79-year-old Dutch cruise passenger losing her life and nine others needing hospital treatment after being knocked off a sea wall.

The new tragedy followed alerts sounded by a regional emergency response coordination centre, which warned visitors against taking photos or videos where waves break to avoid being dragged out to sea. Although a concrete wall protects bathers, online travel site warnings advise tourists to stay out of the natural pool where yesterday's drama occurred when ocean waves are high because they can wash back.

Survivors revealed yesterday evening how the situation had suddenly worsened in seconds.

One Spaniard told RTVE Canarias: "We were at the edge of the pool and leaning against it when a huge wave came in. There was a couple, a blonde woman and an older man, who we saw were going to be swept out of the pool. Another huge wave came crashing in and everyone just ran as fast as they could to get away.

"Two more big waves followed and we were quite a way from the pool at that point and had to hold onto rocks to make sure we didn't get swept away.

"We saw the heads of people bobbing about in the sea where they had been carried into the ocean by the force of the water."

Footage from the scene showed paramedics tending to one woman sitting on the ground in a bikini. The health professional was putting a bandage on the top of her head as onlookers watched on. The bottom of her back was also bloodied and bruised.