Coastguards were paged this morning to reports that people were once again putting themselves at risk by climbing on the recent cliff fall on East Beach.

West Bay Coastguards received a page at 10.41am by Solent Coastguard National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) to reports from RNLI Lifeguards that families were spotted on the rocks.

Three rescue officers from the West Bay team including the teams deputy station officer responded to the station, picked up their equipment and the teams vehicle and headed for East Beach.

On arrival, eight individuals including small children were found to be climbing on the rock fall looking for fossils amongst the unstable rubble.

Strong safety advice was given and all persons climbed down from the fall.

A spokesman for West Bay Coastguard said: "With all of the recent heavy rain washing away the sandstone and mud, it would not take a great deal of force for one of these boulders to be dislodged and cause serious injury, especially to a child."

Coastguard advice remains very clear and the following statement has been issued by UK Coastguard.

It reads: "The cliffs along the UK coastline are continually eroding and we’ve seen a number of cliff collapses in recent weeks. It’s impossible to predict when the next piece might fall or how big it will be.

"It’s very clear that cliffs are very unstable in places and we really can’t stress enough how important it is to keep back from the edge. There is no ‘safe’ place to be.

"When standing at the bottom of a cliff, we would always advise people that they shouldn’t stand less than the height of the cliff away. That means that if the cliff is 25 metres high, don’t go closer than 25 metres towards it.

"Don’t be tempted to go and investigate rock falls as the area could be unstable, and don’t risk going to the edge of the cliff to get a dramatic picture.

"One of our biggest problems is tackling the ‘selfie culture’ where people take risks to get a dramatic photograph of themselves on a dangerous cliff edge – no selfie or photograph is worth risking your life for.

"We want to thank the RNLI Lifeguards based at West Bay for alerting us to this incident and continuing to keep a watchful eye over the area."

If you find yourself in difficulty on the coast or see others in difficulty dial 999 and ask for the coastguard.