The body of a young boy was found in a rucksack at the foot of Beachy Head yesterday alongside the bodies of a man and a woman believed to be his parents.

The 500ft cliffs near Eastbourne in East Sussex are well known for suicides.

Sources said that the couple were unable to come to terms with the death of their child, who is understood to have been ill. They were said to have placed his body in the rucksack before falling to their deaths. Two bodies were spotted by a volunteer coastguard patrol on Sunday night.

Yesterday morning a coastguard team descended the cliffs, where they also found body of the boy — aged about 5. The dead, who have not yet been identified, were winched up the cliffs.

Stuart McNab, station officer for Eastbourne Coastguard, was one of the first to reach the bodies. He said: “I had a cursory look around and there were two rucksacks. They were both closed and they were near the male and female bodies.

“I opened the top of one and looked in and saw what I initially thought was a doll’s head but on closer examination I realised it was a small child. In the other rucksack were some toys — a tractor and teddy bears.”

Post-mortem examinations were carried out last night and police were trying to contact next of kin. Sussex Police said that the family were not thought to be local. A silver Volkswagen caravanette that they were thought to have driven to the scene was removed for analysis.

Chief Inspector Dick Coates, the Eastbourne district commander, said: “This is a tragic incident. We are keeping an open mind until the full facts have been established, but at this stage we are not treating the deaths as suspicious.”

A coastguard spokesman said that a routine patrol reported seeing two bodies as night fell on Sunday. “It was getting dark and they couldn’t see if there was a third or not. They didn’t see the child. It was getting too dark for the cliff team to be put down there and they had to wait until morning,” he said. “When they eventually reached the bodies today they found that there was a young child with them. It is horrific and incredibly sad.”

John Surtees, a retired pathologist who collates statistics on suicides at Beachy Head, said that there had been cases of multiple suicides in the past, including two cases of parents driving over the cliff with children. Mounds and trenches have been created to stop people driving over the cliff, and a telephone box near the edge gives a number for the Samaritans.

On average 17 people kill themselves at Beachy Head each year. Last year at least 26 people committed suicide there. So far this year the coastguard has recorded 11 suicides or attempted suicides at Beachy Head.

“At least 70 per cent, maybe 90 per cent, have a severe psychiatric problem,” Dr Surtees said.

Death - and life

•A chalk headland close to Eastbourne in East Sussex, Beachy Head rises to 162m (530ft) above sea level

•The telephone box close to the clifftop that displays details of how to contact the Samaritans, and the confidential support that they offer, was installed in 1976.

•The reduced number of suicides since 2004 is partly attributed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to an excellent local chaplaincy team

•The Samaritans can be contacted on 0845 7909090

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