Tourists continue to pose for selfies on clifftop where man almost fell to his death
Tourists are continuing to take selfies on a popular clifftop along the Jurassic Coast, despite a man having slipped and fallen at the same spot less than a week ago.
The 28-year-old was visiting Old Harry Rocks in Dorset with five friends on 1 May when he decided to pose for a selfie and fell over the edge, plummeting up to 37m down a sheer drop.
He miraculously landed in the water and only sustained minor injuries.
“I honestly don’t know how he is still alive today,” Ian Brown, a member of the inshore Swanage lifeboat team, told The Sun.
“It is a sheer drop of anywhere between 90 feet to 120 feet (27m to 37m) there. The tide was in at the time and he landed in the water.
“He is incredibly lucky to have suffered relatively minor injuries.”
Lisa Andrews, who was at the scene and spoke to a witness, said: “Apparently he was taking a selfie and slipped. Apparently people were warning him he was too close. I really hope he is OK.”
Mr Brown and his team advise visitors to stay at least 5 metres away from the edge of the chalk cliffs as they are “very crumbly”.
However, many tourists choose not to heed this advice.
“We are seeing a lot of people get too close to the edge there to take selfies all the time,” he added.
A quick search for the location on Instagram shows numerous snaps of people who have taken selfies since the incident on Saturday, with very few of them adhering to the 5m guidance.
One picture shows a woman within a metre and a half of the edge with the caption, “so windy”; another user has posted a video they’ve taken leaning over to capture the side of the cliff.
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