AN eight-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after falling 40m from a cliff.
The young boy was plucked to safety by a coastguard helicopter after falling from the cliff top at Man O' War Bay, near Durdle Door.
Emergency services were scrambled after the boy's father raised the alarm at around 3.18pm on Tuesday.
Portland Coastguard Helicopter lowered a rescuer onto the cliff and the boy, from Surrey, was winched into the helicopter and taken to the cliff top.
Incredibly he was unhurt in the incident and coastguards say if he had fallen any further to the east or fallen more awkwardly, the cliff is almost vertical in places and the outcome may have been very different.
Chris Newton, coastguard watch assistant, said: "Our advice is for people to be extremely careful on the cliff edges, especially at this time of the year when the hot weather means the cliff is very dry and can crumble."
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