The fall happened at Hive Beach near the village of Burton Bradstock shortly before 06:30 BST, Dorset Council said.

Fire crews using thermal imaging equipment were called in to check for any trapped casualties but nothing was found.

The council described it as a "huge" rock fall and said recent heavy rain had made cliffs unstable.

Cynthia Justham, who was walking on the beach later in the morning, said visitors did not appreciate how "dangerous and unpredictable" the cliffs were.

"Sadly already people are walking right up to it and on it - they don't seem to realise more could fall on top of them at any time and they'd have no time to get out of the way," she added.

In a statement posted on social media, Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service urged people to stay away from the cliffs and not climb over the fallen rocks.

"We have had a lot of rain and strong stormy seas battering the cliffs making them very unstable," the statement read.

"Cliff falls can happen at any time without warning."

In 2012, a woman died when she was buried under hundreds of tonnes of rocks following a landslip on the same stretch of beach.

Charlotte Blackman, from Derbyshire, her boyfriend and her father were all buried when the 160ft-high (49m) cliff above them collapsed. The men were pulled free but Ms Blackman died.