Beaches evacuated after chemical ‘haze’ rolls in

Bank holidaymakers had to be evacuated from East Sussex beaches yesterday after a chemical ‘haze’ left many with streaming eyes, sore throats and vomiting.

More than 230 people had to be treated in hospital after being affected along the shoreline from Eastbourne to Birling Gap, near Beachy Head.

Emergency services warned that doors and windows should be kept closed.

Coastguard rescue teams from Birling Gap, Eastbourne, Bexhill and Newhaven raced to help clear the busy beaches as visitors feared they had been struck by a chlorine leak.

Kyle Crickmore, who had been enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend sunshine at the beach at Birling Gap with his family, tweeted: “Some sort of chemical incident at Birling Gap, eyes are streaming and there’s a strong smell of chlorine in the air”.

He had finished swimming when his eyes started stinging. He looked around and saw everyone on the beach also rubbing their eyes and coughing in what he described as “all sorts of strange behaviour”.

He told BBC News: “Then looking out towards the water, there was just this crazy foggy haze rolling in off the sea out of nowhere. It was definitely out of the ordinary considering it was a nice clear sunny day 10 minutes beforehand.”

Members of the public alerted emergency services just before 5pm.

It triggered call-outs to the UK Coastguard, Sussex Police, the South Eastern Ambulance Service and the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service who said they were treating it as a “chemical incident”.

The RNLI said that “possibly some kind of gaseous fumes” had drifted over and a significant number of people on cliff tops had been struck down with symptoms including sore eyes and vomiting.

UK Coastguard commander Steve Carson said: “This seems to have been caused by an unknown haze coming in from the sea, but the source has not yet been established.

“People living along the coast in the area have been advised by emergency services to keep doors and windows shut and to move away from the Birling Gap area.”