FRESH warnings to respect West Bay's dangerous sheer cliffs have been issued after a child plunged 30ft at the weekend.

Coastguards say the four-year-old boy, from Southampton, was lucky to be alive after the fall and if he had fallen just 50 yards further along the path he would have been unlikely to survive.

The youngster, who has not been named, was walking with his mother along the coast path at East Beach on Saturday afternoon when he tumbled over the edge.

He landed on the shingle beach below.

Coastguards and an ambulance were scrambled and the boy was rushed to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester by Portland Coastguard helicopter.

A spokesman for Dorset County Hospital said the boy was kept in overnight and discharged the following day.

This week West Bay coastguard chief Rob Malpas reiterated the dangers of walking too close to the edge of the cliffs which at some points rise to around 130 feet.

"It's only common sense and in this case I believe the boy was told by his dad not to go too close," he said.

"He was lucky it was not another 50ft further up the path because that would have been fatal. "Anywhere along that cliff it's the same - if you go over you go all the way down. There are no ledges to land on."