Tonnes of sand and soil have been thrown onto the beach at Mundesley after a cliff fall just yards from people's homes.

Part of the cliff collapsed in the early hours of Thursday, December 9, submerging a section of wooden sea defences and cutting off part of the beach at high tide.

The collapse happened yards from several residential buildings, including what appears to be a HMO (house of multiple occupancy).

Pete Revell, HM Coastguard's Bacton station officer, said people should steer clear of the area.

Mr Revell said: "All our cliffs are very unstable at the moment, we have had so much rain. Stay away from the tops of the cliffs and say away from the bases."

Antony Lloyd, 31, who rents a flat only yards from the collapse, said: "I was worried a few years ago because of the slide at Trimingham. I was concerned maybe it would happen here. It looks like a massive avalanche. It's concerning for the people living here now."

Lynne Hammond, 61, who also lives nearby, said: "We've been here nine years and nothing really concerning has happened up to now."

She said she bought her house, which perches on the cliff, at auction. "Even then, you couldn't get a mortgage on it is and we had to buy it for cash, so I doubt that it's saleable."

Bev Reynolds, village resident, said she was shocked to see that so much of the cliff face had fallen away.

Mrs Reynolds - who is part of a group called Mundesley Action 4 Cardiac Hill and Coastal Gun Battery, which aims to preserve the cliff line, said people should take extra care in the area - and not try to walk over the fallen section of soil if they found they could not get past on the beach.

Mrs Reynolds said: "You can't get by it, and there is always the chance that if that's gone, other parts are likely to go as well.

"It happened in an area where there has been quite a few falls. It looks like the majority of it has come from the middle section of the cliffs and it has spread over the revetments."

Mrs Reynolds said the cliff fall, near Seaview Road, was the largest she had seen in the past 10 to 12 years she had lived in the area, apart from a huge cliff collapse at Trimingham in January last year.

Next year, work is due to start on a £7 million project to shore up sea defences in Cromer and Mundesley, which Mrs Reynolds said could not come fast enough.

She said: "Obviously that won't stop this sort of thing happening when the rain is behind it, but it will be a relief when the work is finished."

The collapse is part of the ongoing process of coastal erosion along the north Norfolk coast.

Anyone who notices a cliff fall or anything dangerous along the coast can report it to the Coastguard on 999.