Devon beach turns blood red

These pictures show the moment a beach turned blood red thanks to a bizarre phenomenon.

Eleanor Ansell, 21, went with her dad, Mark, 56, to take the family dog, Pippin, for a walk and expected it to be a normal trip to the beach.

But when they got there they were shocked as instead of calm blue waters, they saw a blood red sea and darkly stained sand.

Peppercombe beach, near Westward Ho!, Devon, turned the unusual colour after water ran off a nearby cliff - staining everything in its path.

Mark, the chairman of North Devon Cricket Club, said: "It was totally extraordinary. It's a place we walk regularly and we got down to the beach and it looked really weird.

"We were thinking, 'what has happened?'

"It had just been torrentially raining and the water was running straight off hills and down the cliff face.

"The cliff face is red so it was picking up that colour and pulling it across the beach."

Eleanor, a university student, visited the beach with her dad on Saturday afternoon and described as a "surreal scene".

Only accessible by foot

They had arrived shortly after a torrential downpour which had seen weather warnings issued across the county.

The beach, at the foot of Peppercombe valley which is only accessible by foot, backs on to a series of striking, red cliffs.

Compiled of mud and sandstone, the cliffs are believed to be more than 280 million years old.

And when the rain is heavy, it turns the run-off water red and drains down to the sea.

The secluded beach is operated by the National Trust.