A house teeters on the edge of a 400ft drop following a massive cliff fall along the Jurassic Coast.

The thatched cottage now sits just 40ft from the edge of the unstable cliffs at Sidmouth in Devon.

This follows last weekend’s collapse of a large section of the cliff at Jacob’s Ladder Beach, between Sidmouth and Ladram Bay, where tonnes of debris crashed down, prompting local authorities to close the popular south west coastal path for safety reasons.

This in turn caused a smaller rockfall directly beneath the thatched property, bringing it dangerously close to the edge of the 400ft drop.

Drone footage of the 185 million-year-old sandstone cliffs showed the scale of the landslide – and the risk it poses to both landowners and members of the public venturing onto the beach.

“Following a cliff fall at Jacob’s Ladder beach in Sidmouth, we would like to remind visitors to keep their distance from cliffs along the East Devon coast,” the county council warned. East Devon in a social media post.

“Cliff falls are a natural and unpredictable phenomenon along the east Devon coast.

“This is because the rock from which the cliffs are formed is soft and therefore prone to rockfall and landslides, which can occur at any time.”

Following a similar collapse at the same location last year, coastal scientist Vicky Walkley warned that cliff falls were “very difficult” to predict and could be caused by both heavy rain and hot sunshine .

There was another cliff collapse in Sidmouth in August 2022, after hot weather cracked the earth.

In March 2020, large sections of Sidmouth’s cliffs gave way in two separate collapses, dropping rocks and sand onto the beach, just meters from where people were.

East Devon District Council has reminded visitors to ‘stay well clear’ of cliffs when walking on the beach, with the Coastguard advising beach users to keep a distance equivalent to the height of the cliff between them and the base of the cliff.