A COUPLE cheated death when a cliff collapsed in front of them on the Hive beach at Burton Bradstock.

Six months pregnant Tamara Pollard and partner Tim Cambridge told how they were 10 seconds from being ‘smashed to smithereens’ by the landslide.

Tamara, 45, said: “We were walking along the beach and the cliff fell in front of us.

“It was unbelievable.

“If we had not stopped walking we would have been squashed. Ten seconds later and we would have been smashed to smithereens.”

Tim stopped the couple after hearing the cracking noise of the cliff about to fall moments before it slid down the beach.

Tamara said: “I was absolutely terrified. We are lucky to be alive.”

She added: “It made a thunderous sound.

“The cliff slipped down the beach and the boulders rolled past each other. It was an awesome sight really.”

Tamara and Tim, who live near Wells in Somerset, were staying in Eype when they walked along the beach towards the Hive Beach Café.

Staff at the Hive Beach Café said that customers came in to tell the dramatic rockfall on the lunchtime of Friday, February 10.

Graham Wiffen, Hive Beach Cafe business development manager, took pictures of the landslip and met Tim and Tamara when they came for lunch after the ordeal.

He said: “When they came in they were shaking.”

Mr Wiffen said that it was the biggest landslip he had seen in four years at the café although people had said there were also bad ones in 2007 and 2008.

He added: “It has been exactly the weather to have them.

“We have cracks in the cliff for some time. The water gets in and freezes and then it all comes down.”

Tamara warned one woman who was sat under the cliffs on Saturday of the danger.

Paul and Lynne Stockwell, from Weymouth, said that they also saw parents letting their children play on the rockfall.

Watch officer for Portland Coastguard Philip Chappell said officers had been up to the scene on Saturday to tape it off and warn people against venturing into the area but they were limited as to what they could do.

He also strongly urged parents: “Please warn your children not to play on the landslip site.”