A driver has died after a car went over a 300-foot high cliff on Monday.

The car is understood to have landed on its roof on a beach at the bottom of the cliff in East Sussex.

Police, fire and coastguard crews were sent to the scene of the accident at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne.

Witnesses said they saw the car leave the road at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne and went over the edge of the cliff at 1630 GMT.

Body removed

A Dover coastguard cliff rescue team initially tried to reach the wreckage by climbing down the cliff-face to an area of beach not easily accessible.

The Sussex Police helicopter crew was assessing whether any casualties were in the car, before it was confirmed that a woman had died.

A coastguard spokesman said a lifeboat crew and firefighters reached the car at 1800 GMT.

An investigation has begun into the incident, which police are not treating as suspicious.

The woman's body was taken by lifeboat to the Sovereign Harbour at Eastbourne.

The car crashed close to Belle Tout lighthouse at Beachy Head, one of the UK's most notorious suicide spots.

The woman has not been named.