Dog chases seagull over edge of 250ft cliff - but survives when he lands on a ledge 20 feet down and is rescued by the Coastguard

A dog which chased a seagull off the edge of a 250ft cliff survived after landing on a ledge 20 feet below. 

Cooper, a six-year-old springer-collie cross was out on a walk with owner Jacqueline Luxe,44, near Orcombe Point in Devon when Ms Luxe fell and dropped Cooper's lead. 

The pooch then ran off and it is thought he chased a seagull towards the edge of Orcombe Point before going over the precipice.

Lucky for Cooper he landed on a grassy ledge just 20 feet below which even cushioned his fall. 

Unable to get back up the cliff by himself, Ms Luxe called the coastguards for help. 

During a three hour rescue mission, coastguards were lowered over the cliff and retrieved Cooper in a special animal bag and hoisted him safely back to the top. 

Terry Hoare, from Beer Coastguard, said: 'The dog had gone over the cliff and landed about 20ft down on a small ledge.

'He was moving along the ledge and we had difficulty getting to him because there was quite a lot of undergrowth.

'We lowered somebody down over the edge to the dog with the animal rescue bag but the rescue took about four hours in total from when we were called out to getting back to the station, mostly because we had to cut through 15ft of gorse to get to the cliff edge.

'After that the actual rescue didn't take long. The dog was fine and happy to be reunited with his owners.

'He's very lucky he landed on a ledge.'

Ms Luxe said: 'I tripped over on the coast path and he slipped the lead after I fell. We couldn't see the cliff edge from where we were so I don't know what actually happened to him prior to getting stuck.

'He was fine when he got back to the top and excited to see us all.

'We are very relieved and happy things ended like they did.'

She thanked the coastguard teams for doing an 'amazing job.'