SIX beach huts were damaged by a landslide at Southbourne Beach following persistent rain on Saturday.

The huts were pushed on to the promenade after apparently being struck by a large chunk of concrete, which slid down the cliff side above, bringing sand and mud with it.

John Bridle, of Christchurch, was walking his dog, Jack, past the area around 8pm on Saturday, shortly after the incident took place close to the Gordon Zig Zag path.

He said: “As I looked from the Boscombe side, I saw a six-foot by two-foot by six-inch thick piece of concrete had slid down the cliff, which had dropped off the stone back wall.

“It pushed the beach huts across the promenade.

“There was not a soul about and it must have happened very slowly.

“It must have happened very recently as well, because only one set of bicycle tyre tracks could be seen on the sand, and the rider is a regular that only passed me 10 minutes before.

“There was this big slab of reinforced concrete and it had just slid down slowly and shoved all this sand and clay over the back wall.

“It shoved the huts, a bit like a bulldozer would, into the promenade.”

Council workers cordoned off the site.

Tony Morritt, of Iford, who saw the aftermath yesterday, said: “The council were down there and it was all cordoned off.

“It was quite a sight, as we’ve never really seen anything like that along the beach.”