Police have launched an investigation after the bodies of a five-year-old boy and his mother were found at Beachy Head.

The discovery was made at the cliffs near Eastbourne, East Sussex, by the Coastguard and police at 7am on Monday.

A Sussex Police spokesman said the bodies are those of a 42-year-old woman and her five-year-old son from Maidstone, Kent.

He said: “The deaths are not being treated as suspicious.

“Inquiries are at an early stage and no further information is available at this time.”