Triathletes have told how people were “screaming, terrified” and there was “uncontrollably crying” while some were pulled from the water during an Ironman triathlon in Cork in which two men lost their lives.

Brendan Wall (44), from Co Meath, and Ivan Chittenden (65), from Toronto in Canada, died after getting into difficulty during the swim section of an Ironman triathlon in Youghal, Co Cork, on Sunday.

The swim had been shortened by organisers due to rough conditions following Storm Betty last weekend but on Monday night a statement from Triathlon Ireland, a separate governing body to the organisers of the event in Youghal, confirmed it told organisers it could not sanction the event due to the safety risks to participants over weather conditions.

Triathlon Ireland chief executive Darren Coombes said his association was “reeling from the news” of the two deaths.

Triathlete Keith O’Sullivan was competing in the Ironman on Sunday and said there was a “sense of panic” and people were “being pulled from the water”.

"People were screaming out that were terrified and were suffering with fear in the water. There was people being pulled out of the water and it was just wasn't a place for people with any type of inexperience or any nervousness to be in there.

"I felt days in advance it should have been called off because the winds down here on the Friday night were reaching in excess of 105kmh. On that morning, I knew we shouldn’t have been getting into it but I got caught up in the moment and I’m disappointed in myself for going into it.

"It's communicated to us from the organisers that you put your hand up in the air if you're in difficulty and somebody will come to you in a kayak. The kayakers were struggling to stay upright and the spotters were struggling to keep the boats upright because the swell was so large. They couldn't even see anybody … they were doing the best they possibly can.

“So from all that perspective, the safety measures, the safety precautions that would have normally be available – and you do feel very protected under normal circumstances for events like that – they were not available to us because those people were struggling to be there,” Mr O’Sullivan told RTÉ’s News at One.

Winnie Moore also took part in the triathlon on Sunday and said there were people “uncontrollably crying” in the water and added she decided not to continue with the swim due to the conditions being too dangerous.

“I was knocked down. It took me a good few times to get by the waves initially... I only made it about 200 metres out and there was a very big swell, and I was looking around me and I started to panic. And then another swimmer stopped beside me and he said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘Actually, no, no, I'm not I don't feel comfortable’.

"I was going to attempt going on to reach this buoy, which seemed a good distance away from me. So, when I put my head down and made my attempts to get up to the buoy, when I looked around he [the kayaker] had gone over to another girl who was very distressed off to the left, she was uncontrollably crying.

"So I decided that I would just swim over to him and consoled her and she was very, very distressed in the water and she was a young girl. So that kind of took away from my own anxiety and I just concentrated on her and I just had said to myself that it's not worth that I didn't have to prove anything to myself.

"So he called for a small boat to come over and then we did a sweep off the area and we actually dragged out another four men from the water who were quite distressed themselves and they were just staring down at their feet. You know, I think they were just a little bit in shock themselves,” Ms Moore said.

Two separate investigations into the incident are now under way, with government minister Darragh O’Brien calling for all involved in the event to be “very forthright” on what safety measures were or were not taken on the day.

“It’s an awful tragedy and all of us know that. My thoughts and the thoughts of Government are with the two families of the two people who died very, very tragically,” said Mr O’Brien.

“Unquestionably, there are very serious issues that need to be addressed. I noted the statement of Triathlon Ireland yesterday evening with interest and indeed with some concern.”

He said safety should be “at the centre” of such events.

“I’m not going to make a statement here today as to whether that should be an inquiry, I believe an investigation straight away which I believe will be and is underway and all the stakeholders [that] have been involved, need to be very forthright what happened that day and what safety measures were or indeed were not put in place.”