Five women, including a teen-aged girl, drowned when they were taking bath in the sea after visiting a Dargah at Naripaiyur, near Sayalkudi, on Monday evening.
Police said the women were taking bath near the seashore spread over five acres in Naripaiyur when giant waves pulled them deep into the sea.
The victims, who hailed from the coastal Naripaiyur hamlet, had gone to the seashore after visiting the Kadhar Sahib Dargah, police said.
They were identified as R. Zeenath Bazriya (40), her daughter R. Ismath (18), S. Kadhari (45), her daughter S. Arafat (20) and M. Rameela (23) wife of Mushtaq.
Local people retrieved the bodies, which were sent to the Government hospital for postmortem, police added.
