A spectacular waterspout twisted its way above Eastbourne seafront at the weekend.

The phenomenon was spotted on Saturday at noon but only lasted around ten minutes as it spun from Beachy Head almost to the pier and back.

Bystanders estimated it was several hundred feet high with its centre spiralling anticlockwise.

Rob Slater, of Old Orchard Road, Eastbourne, said: "It must have been a couple of hundred feet high.

"I saw it over the South Downs when it was at its best, before it disappeared. I believe it reappeared later near Sovereign Harbour.

"I saw exactly the same thing over the South Downs before, back in 1990. It is an impressive sight."

A spokesman for the Met Office said the vortex was the result of cold air meeting warm but waterspouts rarely found their way inland.