Coastguards were called yesterday afternoon (5) following reports a person had fallen from the cliffs at Black Ven in Lyme Regis.

The West Bay Coastguard team were paged yesterday afternoon by Solent Coastguard NMOC (National Maritime Operations Centre) to provide backup to Lyme Regis CRT following reports of a person who had possibly fallen from the cliffs at Black Ven.

A member of the public had called the coastguard after witnessing someone sliding down the side of the cliff before disappearing from view.

Seven rescue officers from West Bay including the teams DSO (Deputy Station Officer) quickly responded to the station, picked up their equipment and the teams rescue vehicle and headed for Charmouth.

Once on scene, the West Bay officers came under the command of the Lyme Regis OIC (Officer in Charge) and joined the five Lyme rescue officers already dispatched to the scene.

The officers were spit into teams and searched the area from various vantage points to see if the possible casualty could be located.

With nothing untoward found, enquiries were made with fossil hunters who were thought to have been in the area at the time.

It was found that a pair of fossil hunters were indeed on the upper cliff levels in the same area at the time of the report and Solent Coastguard were updated.

With no evidence or further reports of anyone being in distress, the teams were stood down by Solent Coastguard to return to station.

A spokesman for West Bay Coastguard said: "We want to thank the vigilant member of the public for the call and the incident was recorded as a False Alarm With Good Intent (FAWGI).

"We would strongly advise members of the public not to climb the cliffs looking for fossils as the cliffs may be unstable.

"Cliff falls and mud slides can happen at any time and without warning. No fossil is worth risking your life."