MOTORCYCLIST FOUND DEAD

Dover Coastguard’s co-ordinating the search for a motorcyclist seen falling from the White Cliffs of Dover, have said that the Walmer inshore lifeboat eventually found the body after more than three hours of searching.

The lifeboat found the body of the man, who has not been named but is believed to be aged between 17 and 20, floating in the sea off Dover.

His motorbike was found an hour earlier on the beach below the chalk cliff at South Foreland as the tide went out.

A French tourist saw the man go over the cliff at 4pm and raised the alarm.

A coastguard officer said that a French tourist who saw the man go over the cliff at 4pm ran to a nearby lighthouse and made a 999 call to Dover coastguards, who immediately began a search for the missing man."

Coastguard rescue teams from Deal and Landon, Dover lifeboat and the Walmer inshore lifeboat and the rescue helicopter from RAF Wattisham in Suffolk scoured the coastline of the area, a mile northeast of the port of Dover.

They were hampered by a high tide and had to wait for it to fall. A was also scrambled to look for the motorcyclist.

The man was taken to Walmer lifeboat station, where a coroner pronounced him dead.