A wild camper who set up his tent just inches away from the edge of a crumbling Dorset cliff has been slammed by locals for being ‘reckless’.
Photographs show the tent just a few feet away from the edge of 150ft cliffs at West Bay, which featured on the ITV crime drama Broadchurch.
The unstable cliffs frequently collapse without warning and tonnes of debris has fallen along that stretch of the coast this year, leading to the cliff path being closed.
But that did not stop the camper from ignoring warning signs and hopping over a temporary fence to reach the dangerous spot.
The man, aged in his 20s, installed himself just 10ft from the sheer drop and is believed to have spent the night there.
The cliffs are made up of sandstone rock which is porous and acts like a sponge with rainwater which seeps down through it and weakens it over time.
Strong waves whipped up by winter storms have battered the base of the cliffs over the past few months, further destabilising them.
There is an enormous crack through the cliff face and locals fear it is ‘only a matter of time’ before that entire section collapses.
Local resident Graham Hunt, who took the drone images, said: ‘I can’t get over the fact that the cliff path has been closed since February because of rockfalls, so this man has ignored signs and gone over a fence to get there.
‘You can’t quite believe why someone would be so reckless by camping so near the cliff edge.
‘There are massive cracks in the cliffs from where they have been undercut and it is only a matter of time before that section goes.’
In 2012, tragic holidaymaker Charlotte Blackman was killed in a rockfall at Burton Bradstock.
The latest photos have prompted a safety warning from Coastguard and the local authority.
A coastguard spokesperson urged people to stay clear of cliff edges.
A Dorset Council spokesperson added: ‘Rockfalls and landslips can happen at any time. If people are out on the coast then they should take notice of warning signs and keep to existing paths and stay away from the edge and the base of cliffs.’