Huge landslide leaves seaside caravans teetering on cliff edge

The landslip took up the size of two football pitches and has left dangerous 'sticky' soil below.

These caravans have been left in a precarious position after a dramatic landslide the size of two football pitches hit the coast of north Norfolk yesterday.

Luckily only one of them was being used when heavy rain caused a huge chunk of the cliffside to crash onto the beach below.

A woman and her child were led to safety following the landslide at Trimingham House Caravan Park, about five miles east of Cromer.

Coastguards recovered the families belongings, unplugged any utilities and will spend the next few days pulling back around six holiday homes from the cliff edge.

They say the incident wasn’t caused by coastal erosion but was instead triggered by water building up in the cliff following heavy downpours in December.

Rainwater seeping down the sandy earth made it unstable and prone to slipping.

Rescuers are warning people to stay clear of the beach in case there are any further falls over the next few weeks.

Yesterday’s incident at the 180 caravan site is the second landslip along that stretch of coast in a month.

HM Coastguard Bacton said they were called to the scene at 8.15am this morning after the chunk of the cliff fell off.

In a bid to make sure no one had been hurt, they asked Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service to launch a drone to scan the area for anyone caught in the fall.

Coastguard sector commander in north Norfolk Tony Garbutt said: ‘The cliff as it is at the moment is still unstable so there is still movement there and the next two to three days will tell us if there is going to be any further movement.

‘The biggest problem is the soil which has been deposited on the beach is made up of sand and a lot of silt and when you mix that with water that becomes very sticky.

‘So the safety message to the public would be please don’t clamber all over it as you can get yourself into danger.’