Woman killed in beach landslip

Cars were swept into the sea

A woman has died and her husband has been seriously injured following two successive landslips on the Lleyn peninsula in north Wales.

Donald and Shirley Race's car - which was one of seven vehicles engulfed by mud - was swept over a cliff and into the sea.

The incident happened at Nefyn, on the north coast of the peninsula in Gwynedd, where the cliff is thought to have been weakened by recent heavy rain.

Two helicopters, a lifeboat and three coastguard teams took part in the rescue effort.

It was initially thought that other people may have been trapped in the wreckage, but a search involving rescue dogs revealed that everyone was accounted for.

Seven vehicles were engulfed by mud

Two landslips happened within minutes of each other just after 1130 GMT at Lon y Traeth, on a long stretch of road which winds its way down to the beach.

The first sent mud, stones and sand 80 ft down the cliff face onto a car park, jamming several vehicles against railings.

As people ran for safety, there was a second landslide.

The couple's car, and one other, were pushed onto the beach 25ft below, narrowly missing a chalet as they fell.

'Dog saved'

Sergeant Alwyn Thomas, of North Wales Police, said: "The first landslide from what I understand caused the car to be out of line and they couldn't open the doors.

"When the second one came along that caused the vehicle to go over the side."

Emergency teams worked frantically to get to the middle-aged couple, but Mrs Race, 63, was pronounced dead on arrival at the lifeboat station at nearby Porthdinllaen.

Mr Race, of Tudweilog, near Nefyn, was airlifted to hospital in Bangor with serious injuries, although a police spokesman said they were not thought to be "life-threatening".

According to one report, seconds before the landslide, the couple had been able to pass their pet dog to safety out of the car window.

Alan Schmidt, the driver of a camper van who escaped the incident with minor injuries, said: "The earth slid down, we jumped back, and the earth threw the cars away.

"Five minutes later, a second slide came."

Torrential rain

A spokesman for Holyhead Coastguard said staff had been using heavy digging equipment to sort through the rubble in a bid to beat the incoming tide.

But attempts to recover vehicles had to be abandoned on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, the emergency services will decide how best to continue the task.

A spokeswoman for Gwynedd Council later said torrential rain over the last few months was thought to caused the landslide in the cliff.

"The problem is with all the coast in that particular area which is of clay and sand so you can imagine the effect of tremendous rain over the last few months," she said.

There had been another, smaller slide in the same area over the Christmas period.