Beachy Head, rising 530 feet above the sea, is a popular suicide spot

Coastguard rescue teams, police and ambulance crews were called after a member of the public reported seeing the car fly over the cliffs at Beachy Head, East Sussex, at about 0100 BST on Saturday.

The man - a 69-year-old paraplegic who had been missing from a local care home - had dropped the equivalent of a 25-storey tower block before his fall was broken.

He was moved to the foot of the cliffs before being taken to hospital by paramedics.

It's amazing that he did escape - he's a very lucky man Sussex Police spokesman name here

Beachy Head, often the scene of suicide attempts, rears 530 feet (162 m) above the sea and is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain.

A Sussex Police spokesman said the man - who was taken to the nearby Eastbourne District General Hospital - had not been seriously injured.

"It's amazing that he did escape - he's a very lucky man," he said.

"It's not happened before to my knowledge and he was lucky to be spotted at that time in the morning.

"He has survived, which is the main thing."

A spokesman for Dover Coastguard said: "The car appears to have gone over the cliffs but was stopped by a line of trees about 250 feet down rather than taking the vertical drop.

"It was quite lucky really."