BEACH CLOSED AFTER CLIFF LANDSLIDE

Coastguards and the Sidmouth lifeboat were called to a beach below Salcombe Cliff at Sidmouth, Devon, after reports of a rock fall sent tons of rock plunging on to a beach at the holiday resort.

There were lots of people on the beach at the time because of the hot weather and police are checking to ensure everyone is accounted for.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said it is not yet known if anyone had been hurt in the incident.

It is thought a couple of hundred tons of rock fell during the landslide and eyewitnesses suggested a 30 to 40 yard stretch of the cliff collapsed.

A spokeswoman for Portland Coastguards said there were people on the beach at the time but none were in the immediate vicinity when the landslide happened.

Sidmouth inshore lifeboat and another coastguard team had searched the area to ensure that nobody was trapped underneath the rock.