Beachcombers hoping to make a killing by picking up planks from the hundreds of tonnes of timber which fell from a cargo ship in the Channel, have been warned by police they will be prosecuted.

The planking is now washing ashore in Ramsgate and Margate in Kent. Police have also warned they will prosecute sight-seers who park dangerously or trespass.

The Russian-registered Sinegorsk shed its 1,500-tonne load during rough seas in a major shipping lane, 14 miles off Newhaven, East Sussex, on Monday.
The vessel has berthed in Southampton to allow damage to be assessed and remaining cargo to be secured.

A Dover Coastguard spokesman said: “It is starting to come ashore now between Pegwell Bay and Ramsgate and up towards Margate.
“We have just received a report from a fisherman a mile east of Broadstairs to say there’s a massive amount of it there.
“He said he’d never seen so much wood in his life.”