Incredible moment entire cliff falls into sea on British coast in 'wake up call'

30 November 2023 , 14:06

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Incredible moment entire cliff falls into sea on British coast in 'wake up call'

The incredible moment an entire cliff fell into the sea on a UK coast has been caught on camera.

Footage filmed in Newquay, Cornwall, shows tonnes of rocks plummeting down the 200ft cliff face yesterday. After the incident, steps and a section of footpath leading to a beach were closed. Members of the public are now being asked to keep well away from the 200ft cliff edge at Whipsiderry Beach over fears of further erosion.

There were protests at the site earlier this year to stop luxury homes being built on the cliff - and angry locals said this week's incident should be a "wake-up call". The site was used back in March for a protest by locals who were campaigning to have work stopped to fill in caves at the base of the cliffs, to enable properties to be developed on top of the 200-foot cliff.

Whipsiderry beach near Newquay has been closed off (Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

Campaigners successfully saw developers get their licence suspended earlier this year over fears their work could make the cliff too unstable. Save Whipsiderry Cliffs group said contractors had been excavating sea caves, with heavy machinery, drilling into rock, inserting steel rods and filling the caves with concrete, including part of the cliff face above.

Due to the damage caused by the fall, the steps and surrounding footpath have now been closed for safety reasons to allow specialist engineers to carry out investigations on site. Cormac said on Facebook: "There has been a large cliff fall on Whipsiderry Beach. Our specialist engineers will be on site carrying out investigations. The steps and surrounding footpath are closed for safety reasons.

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"This is a reminder to beach users walking from Porth or Watergate Bay beaches to check the tide times to avoid being cut off. Please keep well away from the cliff edge and follow the signage in place."

The cliff fell yesterday and there are now fears of further erosion (Save Whipsiderry Cliffs / SWNS)

Locals said the cliff fall should be a 'wake-up call' to developers (Save Whipsiderry Cliffs / SWNS)

The Save Whipsiderry Cliffs campaign also issued a stark warning after the incident, which happened at around 1.30pm. They said: "Stay away. Major cliff fall at Whipsy happened in the last 30 minutes. The cliff is highly unstable, please stay away, much more is expected to fall."

Locals reacted with shock that developers, Living Quarter Properties, had ever planned to put homes there. One said: "Crazy - this is a wake up call to the developers!"

Another said: "Someone put some luxury second homes on this cliff immediately." While another local added: "Thats BIG..... Its crazy to think about building apartments on top of that cliff, no amount of stabilizing mesh would stop a rockfall like that."

Tom Bevan