A car landed on an empty tent near sunbathers on Mawgan Porth after it plunged off a cliff yesterday, writes John Bett.
Beach-goers fled in panic as the black vehicle fell 20ft directly onto a tent at a tourist hotspot.
Miraculously, the driver only suffered minor injuries and no-one on the beach was hurt despite crowds of people sitting nearby.
Emergency services rushed to the scene at Mawgan Porth shortly before 3.30pm on Thursday, August 6.
Padstow Coastguard said that the reason the car left the road is still unknown.
A spokesperson said: "We were requested to assist Newquay Coastguard, alongside South Western Ambulance NHS Service Trust, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service and Devon and Cornwall Police, with a car that had landed on the beach.
"Initial reports of the vehicle driving off a cliff and landing on a beach tent were confirmed, however it had left the B3276 road, and dropped approximately 20ft, thankfully onto what was at the time, an empty beach tent.
"With no other casualties other than minor injuries on the driver only, Padstow team were then stood down.
"Two team members had already arrived on scene, and remained, assisting the remaining emergency services to right the car back onto its wheels, and remove it from the beach.
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"The cause of the vehicle to leave the road is not known, but it was slow enough not to activate the on board airbags.
"With no medical, safety or pollution concerns, the emergency services removed various pieces of debris from the incident, and were able to depart the scene as requested.
"Excellent multi service operations, and an extraordinarily lucky outcome for the driver and beachgoers."
Devon and Cornwall Police also attended and said that the driver had failed to make a corner on the road near the beach.
Newquay Police Response tweeted: "Just dealt with an incident where a #driver had failed to negotiate the corner to #MawganPorth.
"Lucky driver with minor injuries & lucky that no one was seriously injured on the beach.
"Car and driver had quite a drop, #Beach users shocked!"
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