Mystery surrounds the death of tens of thousands of crabs that have been washed up around the Thanet coastline.

Piles of the stricken creatures littering the foreshore at low tide have been spotted by beach users in the last week.

The unusual find has sparked an investigation by the Environment Agency.

An Agency spokesman said: “We are working with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science to find out what has happened. It may be that they have perished in the extreme cold weather we have experienced recently.

“However, the deaths could also be caused by a mystery virus that has only attacked this particular species, the velvet swimming crab, in this part of the Kent coast.

“We are ruling out pollution as a cause because no other maritime life has been affected. I would not advise anyone to pick up the dead crabs, purely as a safety precaution.”

Keen sea fisherman Martin Thain from Garlinge took graphic photographs to show the scale of the problem he found when walking at Westbrook Bay.

The 24-year-old said: “I was astounded by the sheer scale of the deaths. I have been fishing for many years and I have never seen anything like this at all. It was a strange sight seeing the crabs strewn along the foreshore."

For full story, see the Thanet Extra, out on Wednesday January 14