IN summer it is the scene of coach tours and adrenaline sports but on wet, winter nights Lulworth Cove is altogether different.

On Thursday night, whether through teenage curiosity or a love for fishing, two young lives were lost at this beauty spot and a third narrowly spared.

What is known is that 16-year-old Matthew Myburgh and Charlie Morrell, 15, were most definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time when a force- nine gale blew nine-foot waves and 60mph winds into the cove.

The steward at the Royal British Legion, where the boys sometimes played pool, said they were unlucky to find such high tides.

One hour before high tide the boys had been out with their friend Richard Lawrence on the rocks.

The steward said: "They were just young boys looking for adventure. It wasn't the first time they had been out there. We have all done it.

"There's nothing for young people to do in the village so although they would have been aware of the dangers that would not have stopped them."

More than 100 police, search and rescue, maritime coastguard agency, RNLI and Royal Marines searched land and sea, many overnight. The only things they found were a shoe and a rucksack believed to belong to one of the boys.

Lifeboats from Weymouth patrolled 10-mile corridors either side of St Albans and Bat's Head. Royal Marines sent four raider boats and two rigid inflatables, while Hampshire and Wiltshire search and rescue joined Dorset Maritime Coastguard in the search.

By Friday afternoon it became obvious the mission would soon become a police missing persons inquiry.

James Weld, general manger of Lulworth Estate spoke for all 700 villagers when he said: "It is a tragedy which has upset everyone. It was a high tide and the weather could have been the tail end of the hurricane. We get bad storms but usually in the spring."

First published: November 5