Residents have been warned of highly venomous sea creatures washing up on Dorset beaches, including six over the weekend.

Several Portuguese Man O'War have been discovered washed up along the Jurassic Coast in the past two months, prompting local countryside groups to warn beachgoers about the problem

Local beach comber Erin Tyrrell said she found six of the creatures over the weekend and this led to Lulworth Rangers issuing a warning.

They said: "Portuguese Man O' War have been washing up across the south west over the [last] two months. Six have washed in on our beaches over the weekend.

"Beautiful and dangerous at the same time, its tentacles deliver a very powerful sting.

"Admire from a distance but don't touch."

The Portuguese Man O'War is not a jellyfish, as it is commonly called.

The Wildlife Trust says: "It is a colonial hydrozoan, made up of small individual animals called zooids - each with their own specific function, e.g. feeding or breeding. They can't live separately and function together as one animal.

"Report any sightings of Portuguese Man O'War to your local Wildlife Trust. Look but don't touch - they give a very nasty sting, even long after they are dead."