Low tide at Brighton on Sunday evening was 6:06pm when the water would only have been 3.6 ft (1.1m) deep. Police, lifeboat, lifeguard, coastguard and ambulance services were called to the pier.

SEEN from the beach by thousands of visitors every weekend, it has been a long time since anyone really got close to the West Pier.

In a statement, Sussex Police said: "Two men were taken to hospital having reportedly jumped into the sea from Brighton Palace Pier on August 28. "One man has now sadly died from his injuries.

Current spring tides meant the sea level in Brighton was so low on Thursday that people were able to walk out to the West Pier – and it is set to be even lower on Friday evening.

The owners of Brighton's stricken West Pier face an anxious New Year as a combination of high seas and bad weather threatens to destroy the structure completely. The 19th century pier partly ...