A pensioner found at the foot of the cliff at Beachy Head may have died from natural causes, lifeboatmen said today.

The unnamed woman, in her 70s, was found by a walker at Whitbread Hollow yesterday afternoon.

At first it was thought she may have fallen from the 530ft-high chalk cliff near Eastbourne following four suspected suicides within ten days.

But when the Eastbourne offshore and inshore lifeboat crews found her on the beach they discovered she had no external injuries.

The woman's body was taken to Eastbourne District General Hospital for tests.