Egypt’s Alexandria prosecution is investigating the drowning of four people from one family on Thursday, after they had illegally accessed a beach in Alexandria, which has been shut down as part of the measures adopted to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

The prosecution decided to question the beach’s management to determine how the beach-goers were able to access the site despite the shutdown.

Four people from one family drowned after they "stealthily" entered Al-Safa beach in Alexandria at dawn on Thursday, head of the central administration for tourism and resorts in Alexandria, Gamal Rashad, told Al-Ahram Arabic new website.

Upon a notification sent to municipal security authorities stating that four people have drowned in Al-Safa Beach, in Alexandria's Al-Agamy neighbourhood, a number of police officers and river rescue individuals along with an ambulance were dispatched to the incident site.

The corpses of a 19-year-old female and a 15-year-old male were retrieved and taken to the morgue, while the two remaining victims are still missing at sea and a search is underway to find them.

Thursday's incident comes only two weeks after 11 others had drowned after illegally accessing Palm Beach, which is located only metres from Al-Safa beach.

Egypt’s Alexandria prosecution ordered on 11 July that police officers be stationed at the beach in Agami.

Despite a gradual reopening of vital sectors and activities, including restaurants, coffee shops and malls across the country in a bid to keep the economy running, Egypt’s public beaches are still closed, including over 60 beaches in Alexandria to prevent crowding to stem the spread of the virus.

The country's cabinet, however, said on Wednesday it will discuss after the Islamic Eid Al-Adha holiday next week the possibility of reopening public parks and beaches with entrance tickets at an occupancy limit of 50 percent.