Three people killed after cliff collapses at popular beach
Three people were killed and two more injured after a cliff collapsed onto a popular beach, authorities said.
The sandstone bluff gave way shortly before 3pm (local time) on Friday at Grandview Beach in Encinitas, a suburb north of San Diego, in Southern California.
The area is very popular with local residents, surfers and holidaymakers.
A woman died at the scene and two people died at a hospital, the city reported.
Authorities did not release their names or ages.
A fourth person remained hospitalised, and a fifth had minor injuries and wasn't hospitalised, authorities said.
The beach was filled with people at the time of the collapse.
A helicopter, from US news outlet KNSD-TV, captured footage of beach chairs, towels, surf boards and beach toys strewn about the sand.
A nine by seven-and-a-half metre section of the bluff located about four-and-a-half metres above the beach gave way, dumping rock and sand onto the people below.
Several victims had to be dug out of the mound.
The bluff remained unstable and the area was closed.
Homes atop the cliff were not in any danger, Encinitas Fire Chief Mike Stein said.
At one point, dogs were brought in to search for additional victims, but by late Friday night none had been found.
Officials said the cliff was unstable and they cordoned off the area in order to keep people out of harm's way.
A skip loader was brought in to clear away the dense, heavy debris.
Bluffs give way four to eight times a year in Southern California, but "nothing of this magnitude", Brian Ketterer, southern field division chief of California State Parks, said.
"This is a naturally eroding coastline," Encinitas Lifeguard Captain Larry Giles said.
"There's really no rhyme or reason, but that's what it does naturally.
“This is what it does, and this is how are beaches are actually partially made. It actually has these failures."
Rising tides threaten coastal mansions
Suburbs north of San Diego have contended with rising water levels in the Pacific Ocean, pressuring bluffs along the coast.
Some bluffs are fortified with concrete walls to prevent multimillion-dollar homes from falling into the sea.
The collapse occurred near Grandview Beach which is fairly narrow and experienced high tides in the week leading up to the tragedy.
Long stretches of beach in Encinitas are narrow strips of sand between stiff waves and towering rock walls.
People lounging on beach chairs or blankets are sometimes surprised as waves roll past them and within a few metres of the walls.
Some areas are only accessible by steep wooden stairs that descend from neighbourhoods atop the cliffs.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Encinitas resident Rebecca Kowalczyk, 30, died near the same area January 16, 2000, when a 100 metre-wide chunk of bluff fell on top of her and buried her.
The newspaper said the last fatal bluff-collapse in San Diego County happened more than a decade ago, when Nevada’s Robert Mellone, 57, was crushed by a sand and boulders from a section of bluff above Torrey Pines State Beach.
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