Diogo Jota and Andre Silva tribute etched on beach

Cameron Weldon
BBC News, South West
Kieron Green A large and intricate sand art design on a sandy beach. The artwork has multiple concentric circles and detailed patterns with the writing RIP Diogo Jota and Andre Silva at the centre of the artwork. There are some people along with the artist admiring it. Kieron Green
Artist Geoffrey "Sandyman" Ward says the news was a great shock

A sand tribute in memory of Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who were killed in a car crash earlier this month, has appeared on a beach in Devon.

Liverpool forward Jota, 28, and 25-year-old Silva, who was also a footballer at a Portuguese club, died on 3 July in the Spanish province of Zamora.

Artist Geoffrey "Sandyman" Ward, from Torquay, created the large sand design on Torre Abbey Beach to honour the pair last Wednesday.

Tributes have and continue to be paid across the world for the Portuguese brothers, with Mr Ward saying the news had come as a "great shock" and that he wanted to pay his respects.

Kieron Green A large and intricate sand art design on a sandy beach. The artwork has multiple concentric circles and detailed patterns. There is a man working on it with a rake. Kieron Green
Mr Ward says the tribute took him six hours to produce

Mr Ward has produced art on the beach for many years, marking many national and international tragedies, including the 2017 Manchester bombings.

He has also helped couples with surprise proposal messages.

Other tributes following the death of the brothers included a painted mural near Anfield Stadium, as well as Liverpool announcing they would retire the number 20 shirt in Jota's memory.

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