Tonnes of rock from a crumbling cliffside has fallen onto Seaham Hall Beach in a landslide.
The cliff started to crumble on Tuesday and by midday, huge sections of it crashed onto the sand below. It was captured by an eyewitness who regularly walks their dog on the beach.
They shared the video on social media to draw attention to the incident, and urged people to take care when walking along Durham’s coastline.
The eyewitness said: “I’ve never witnessed a landslide as big in person, but I’m just glad nobody was close by as I wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“A lot of people travel to this beach for sea glassing so always have their heads down at the ground unaware of the potential dangers close to the cliffs. Nothing can be done to stop the ever changing erosion to our coastline but people need to take more care.”
Brian Weatherall, Durham County Council’s drainage and coastal protection manager, said: “Our coastal engineers have visited the landslip onto the beach at Seaham this afternoon.
“It’s estimated in excess of 10,000 tonnes of mostly limestone has slipped onto the beach, around 1km north of Seaham, near the county’s border with Sunderland.
“The erosion of the limestone cliffs in this area, and the habitat that it creates, is part of the reason for its Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status.
“Thankfully, land slippage of this scale is quite rare. However, we would encourage members of the public to keep away from the cliff edges and avoid the loose material.”
Join our County Durham WhatsApp community for all the latest news County Durham news sent direct to your phone.
To join you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is choose which community you want to join, click on the link and press ‘join community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the ChronicleLive team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our privacy notice.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN