The bodies of a man and woman who jumped from the top of cliffs have been recovered within hours of one another.

Sussex Police has launched two separate investigations after the bodies of the pair were found in Eastbourne and Brighton.

Officers, paramedics and the coastguard were called to Beachy Head in Eastbourne during the early hours of Sunday morning Sarah Pearce, 40, from Watford, in Hertfordshire, is believed to have jumped 525ft to her death.

Police patrolling the area spotted an empty red Ford Ka parked at the top of the cliff shortly before 1.30am.

When officers went to investigate, they found the woman's body near the foot of the cliff.

Police were last night trying to confirm that the vehicle belonged to the woman but rumours circulating around Eastbourne suggested she had taken a taxi to the cliff top.

The woman escaped detection by the 18-man Beachy Head chaplaincy team which patrols the area each day and night to try to dissuade suicidal people from leaping to their deaths.

Eastbourne officer PC Lee Willsher said: "Another police force recorded a concern for missing person about her.

"Subsequent enquiries have found she was from another area."

Hours later the body of a man in his thirties was found at the foot of a cliff near Steyning Avenue, in Peacehaven.

A man walking his dog on the coastal footpath came across the body at 6.11am and called the police.

The coastguard were called at 8.09am to open a gate across a road leading to the coastal path to give police better access to the body.

The man, who has not yet been for named, lived in Peacehaven and is believed to have jumped to his death.

He was found wearing a black jacket, blue jogging bottoms and white trainers.

Peacehaven officer Sgt Robin Fuller said: "It looks as though he had been there a little while.

"He is believed to have been there overnight.

"The body has not yet been formally identified and is with the coroner."

Neither of the deaths at the weekend are being treated as suspicious.

Beachy Head has been a notorious suicide spot since the 17th Century.

Last Monday(April 9), a woman was seen to jump from beside the lighthouse and was found dead three-quarters of the way down the cliff.

During 2006 seven people committed suicide by throwing themselves off the cliff in Eastbourne, compared to 15 people in 2002, 17 in 2003, 22 in 2004 and 26 in 2005.

Even during 2000, when the foot and mouth epidemic meant Beachy Head was closed to the public for six months, there were ten suicides.

In January alone, 17 people were talked out of committing suicide at Beachy Head by the chaplaincy team which patrols the area.