Huge cliff crack prompts warning at fossil beach

A sand and shingle beach with the shore on the left of the picture and a dark grey cliff rising up on the right. The cliff has a huge vertical crack running from top to bottom. Daylight is visible through the crack at the top and the section looks as though it could fall any moment. A group of people with children are walking nearby.James Carroll

Cliff collapses are common on the Jurassic Coast

Visitors to a beach popular with fossil hunters are being urged to stay away from a cliff where a huge crack has appeared.

The section at Charmouth, on Dorset's Jurassic Coast, appears on the brink of collapse with the large vertical crack stretching from the top all the way to the beach.

Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre urged people to stay away from the cliffs at all times, adding: "If fossil hunting, people should look amongst the shingle in the tideline at the low tide and should check the tides before going onto the beaches.

"This particular chunk of cliff isn't likely to have anything in it, and certainly not anything worth going up to the cliffs for."

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