Dover Coastguard have warned walkers to steer clear of the White Cliffs of Dover after a quarter-mile section of chalk cliff crashed into the sea, and says more may fall soon along the stretch of land, which is part-owned by the National Trust.

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of chalk cliff may have fallen into the sea along a quarter-mile stretch of coast between Dover and St Margaret's Bay.

A Dover Coastguard spokesman says: "Luckily, no-one was injured today. It would have been fatal if you were walking along there as all that chalk fell 300ft.

"I've spoken to somebody who walks along those cliffs and he has said it is the biggest one he has seen for a long, long time.

"There is more going to go, sooner rather than later. A few days ago, there were cracks in the cliff about three inches wide. Today, they are seven inches wide."

The collapse was caused by rain being absorbed into the cliff-face and freezing during the recent cold snap.

I would imagine a few thousand tones falling on your head would give you a bit of a headache and many times during my days in Dover I took the foot of the cliff walk on the ebb tide from Dover to St Margaret’s Bay.