Man, 20, Says He Escaped Death 'by Inches' After Cliff Suddenly Collapsed While He Was Out Walking
"If we were there 30 seconds to two minutes later I think we would have lost our lives," said Kieron English
Brian Brant
Fri, February 6, 2026 at 11:30 AM UTC
2 min read
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William Dax / SWNS (2)
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Kieron English, 20, was hiking with a friend when a part of a cliff they were walking on in Cornwall suddenly collapsed
The two hikers, along with three other people and two dogs, were trapped "with no way of getting out" — but fortunately, English said he managed to call police, who rescued them
The delivery rider had just moved to the town three months earlier when the incident unfolded
A 20-year-old man says he managed to avoid a landslide "by inches" while out for a walk in England.
Kieron English told SWNS that he was walking with a friend on Saturday, Jan. 31, when a part of the cliff on the Newquay coast in Cornwall collapsed without warning.
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The two friends, as well as three other people and two dogs, were trapped suddenly "with no way of getting out," he said. Fortunately, English managed to call the police, and they were ultimately rescued.
"If we were there 30 seconds to two minutes later I think we would have lost our lives," the delivery rider, who moved to the town three months earlier, told SWNS, noting that they were five or 10 feet away from where the soil and rock collapsed.
William Dax / SWNS
Three separate groups ended up being stranded together on a concrete pad with "no safe way out," according to SWNS. The tide was too high to try to swim — and the cliff was too unstable to climb.
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Matt Robins, from Newquay RNLI Lifeboats, which was one of the groups that assisted in the rescue, said that while sea conditions "weren’t particularly rough, the scene where we had to evacuate the casualties from was proving difficult."
Newquay coastguard search & resc / SWNS
"Due to the swell rising and falling against the rocks, we had to communicate with the crew onshore and ask them to follow our precise instructions," he added, noting that even "one minor slip" could have sent people tumbling into the water below.
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The evacuated group was taken to the town harbor and to the lifeboat station, SWNS reported. There they were offered a hot drink, checked for any injuries and given advice from one of the paramedic crew members.
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