Four tourists - three Britons and a German - drowned in southern Portugal when they tried to rescue three children from the sea, officials said yesterday. The children survived.

The children - a British boy and British and German girls, aged between 9 and 11 - were in the surf on a beach near Sagres, about 200 kilometers south of Lisbon, when they were caught by a strong current and cried out for help on Monday, the southern Algarve region's Civil Governor Isilda Gomes said.

"A number of adults on the beach, including the children's parents, rushed into the sea to help," Gomes said.