A GROUP of 'bonkers' students put their lives and others at risk climbing down Bournemouth's East Cliff, a councillor says.

The four were spotted by beachgoer Paul Whitaker at around 6.30pm on Thursday.

He was walking his dog when he noticed people looking up the cliff and caught sight of the group near the top. He called police and then filmed their descent from the cliff top, only 150 yards from the 2016 cliff slip which destroyed the lift and buried the promenade in rubble.

Mr Whitaker, 42, said: "The cliff was pretty vertical there and it will crumble suddenly, it was very worrying.

"They were slipping and sliding all the way down.

"I went to speak with them at the bottom and told them it was dangerous. They were foreign students, four of them, aged about 17 or 18 years old.

"They didn't know the cliff was susceptible to collapsing."

Cllr Pat Oakley, cabinet member for tourism, said the council would be urging local language schools to warn students about the dangers.

"It is absolutely bonkers, such a ridiculous thing to do," he said.

"They put their lives at risk and those of others as well."

Cllr Oakley said further measures to secure the cliffs would likely prove unsightly and prohibitively expensive.

"To put a fence there that would be impossible to climb over would be very expensive and I think common sense would say it is not necessary. If someone is determined they are going to do it," he said.

"It is in the nature of the cliffs that they are not completely stable, to be unpredictable, it is something we in Bournemouth have lived with safely for a long time.

"Where we have had movement recently it has been when, after a period of drought, it does rain and the water washes straight through all of the cracks which have formed."

In April 2016 tonnes of rock and rubble plunged onto the promenade as a large section of the East Cliff collapsed. The lift, cliff-top pathway and steps were ripped apart and a café toilet block at the base of the cliffs was destroyed.

Andrew Emery, resort development manager, said: "People should exercise common sense and avoid climbing the soft sandstone cliffs as it is highly dangerous and the evidence of that can be plainly seen at the East Cliff where there was a significant and sudden cliff fall in 2016 that placed the East Cliff lift out of action.

"Climbing on the cliff simply accelerates erosion and adds to instability.

"We have warning signs along the top of the cliffs and at key entrance points advising the public to keep off the cliffs, which is in contravention to a local by-law and could result in a significant fine if caught."