Beachy Head: Mother and five-year-old son found dead at cliffs

Woman and son were from Maidstone, Kent, Sussex police says

Beachy Head is a chalk headline which is around 530 feet high (Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

Police have launched an investigation after the bodies of a five-year-old boy and his were found at Beachy Head in East Sussex.

Police and coastguards found the bodies at the cliffs near Eastbourne at 7am on Monday.

A Sussex police spokesman said the bodies were those of a 42-year-old woman and her son from Maidstone, Kent.

“The deaths are not being treated as suspicious,” he said.

“Inquiries are at an early stage and no further information is available at this time.”

The emergency services were alerted on Sunday evening after a car was found in a car park.

The deaths come after the discovery of three bodies at the foot of the cliffs on Wednesday – meaning that five bodies have been found there in the space of just a week.

Police said none of those deaths were linked.

Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain and a popular tourist spot.