A teenager has plunged 60ft down a cliff, reportedly while having his picture taken.
The 15-year-old was enjoying some ‘downtime’ during a geography school trip to Old Harry Rocks in Studland, Dorset.
Students watched in horror as the boy ‘disappeared’ from the edge of the famous rocks.
A 999 call reported that he had fallen from the cliffs – but when the lifeboat crews arrived at the beach below, they found him ‘virtually uninjured’.
He had landed on the side of a shingle bed at the base of the chalk cliffs, and was able to get to his feet and walk towards the shore.
The victim had a cut to his head and a scratch on his back, but that was it.
Swanage Coastguard said emergency crews ‘were astonished by the absence of serious injuries’.
The pupil was checked over by an ambulance crew at Knoll Beach, Studland, who said he did not need hospital treatment.
Ian Brown, of the Swanage coastguard, stressed that he would have had to walk past a warning sign urging people to stay away from the edge of the cliff.
He said he was told the boy had asked for his photograph to be taken of himself by a friend when the accident happened at 1.55pm on Thursday.
Mr Brown said: ‘The 15-year-old boy was on a school trip from London doing a geography field study.
‘The pupils were all advised not to go too close to the edge but he wanted a picture of himself next to it.
‘His friend was meant to take the photo but as he did the boy fell over the edge.
‘Whether he lost his footing and slipped I don’t know but it was a sheer drop of 60ft
‘His teachers were beside themselves and students probably thought the worst. But they saw him quite quickly get up and start walking towards the shore.’
He added: ‘I spoke with him and told him he wasn’t in trouble but that we wanted to find out what had happened.
‘He just shrugged it off and said he was fine. He wasn’t shocked but his teachers were telling him that he didn’t know how lucky he was.’
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