A COASTGUARD said two Rockwell Green children were lucky to be alive this week after becoming trapped up to their waists in a mudslide on the Dorset coast.

Justin Mair, 14, and nine-year-old sister Chloe-Anne, were stuck just east of Charmouth beach on Sunday after large parts of the cliff slipped onto the beach.

Parents Fiona and John, helped by two other men, battled to rescue them with a rope and branches before they sunk deeper into the debris.

Justin, who goes to Court Fields school, and Chloe-Anne, a pupil at Wellesley Park, were pulled free after 25 minutes and were unharmed but had lost feeling in their legs because of the cold.

Coastguard station officer Graham Turner said land movement at the spot has been ‘immense’ in recent weeks and playing on the mud is ‘treacherous’.

He said: "I’m sure sooner or later someone is going to lose their life. They are going to disappear down into the mud and we won’t be able to do anything about it."

Fiona, who works as a cook at St John’s primary school in Wellington, said the family did not realise the area was so dangerous and are calling for warning signs to prevent further incidents.

She said: "The worst thing is there were no signs there saying it was dangerous. To be quite honest, from the distance we were, it just looked like rocks.

"It didn’t seem frightening at the time because we just got on with it and got them out.

"It’s afterwards you think of what could have been.”