Scavengers are putting their lives at risk trying to salvage wood being blown onshore in heavy seas around the Thanet coast.

Coastguard Pete Overton said: "It is dangerous. The force of the waves with large pieces of timber could knock someone out in the water, and that could prove fatal.

"People have been at the beaches with vans expecting to load timber in - we have turned people away. Once they realised the danger and the fact it was theft, they were OK about it."

He said the wood is "generally in planks around 6ft by 1ft or 6ft by 2ft, large enough to give you a nasty clout if it struck you."

Coastguards are aiming to have an officer at each of the beaches where the wood is ashore - so far that is at Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate main sands, Viking Bay, Louisa Bay and Stone Bay at Broadstairs.

Coastguard Overton added: "The the wood is being blown onshore by a strong, almost gale force, southerly wind. A general warning has gone out to people to watch from a distance but stay away from the shoreline.

"We do not know if the timber will come ashore further round the coast at Margate - it is more likely that it will blow up the coast into the North Sea."