Video captures the shocking moment cliff collapses on a Greek island beach. / ViralHog
This is the horrifying moment a landslide hit the popular Navagio beach in Greece, injuring at least seven people.
Dramatic footage captures the moment British holidaymakers cheated death in scenes described "like Dunkirk" after tons of rock fell from a cliff face onto a packed tourist beach on the Greekisland of Zakynthos, also known as Zante.
Although fire brigade and coast guard officials said there was no one missing, authorities had air and sea assets in the area and were conducting a search as a precaution, in case people were trapped under the rocks, one official said.
Lynette Bridges, 58, from Hordon-on-the Hill in Essex, said her tour boat had just pulled up to the popular Shipwreck Beach when an enormous sheet of stone crashed into the sea, capsizing boats and flooding the crowded beach.
She said: "We started to hear this almighty cracking sound and the first lot came down quickly followed by the second lot.
"The noise and the sound and the amount of rock that came down was unbelievable.
'It was like Dunkirk, all these people coming to the edge of the water, all these boats of people coming to get them and all this panic."
Video footage of the moment showed the rock split and drop onto the shore, sending up a cloud of dust and speeding waves inland over the assorted tourists.
People embark a vessel after a landslide occurred at the popular beach of Navagio, or Shipwreck Beach, on the western island of Zakynthos, Greece. Photo / PA
Sharon Robinson Palmer, also 58 and from Essex, said there were people snorkelling and sunbathing near the limestone cliffs when the landslide struck.
Josh O'Connell, from Kilkenny in Ireland, estimated there were more than a dozen tourist boats in the bay, and between four and five hundred people in the area.
The 21-year-old, who works for a tour company on the island, said: "The rock that fell, oh gosh, it would be like a four-storey building falling onto the beach."
The weight of the rock sent a small tsunami onto the crowded sands, he said, as families scrambled to get to safety.
He continued: "I thought more was coming and with the size of the waves coming towards me I just started running.
"The water hit my feet with such force that it knocked me onto my back and covered over half of the beach."
He described the aftermath as "chaos", with families and children running to get to safety on the boats.
Beachgoers Paris Jade Thorpe, 26 and Wendy Thorpe, 53, from Odiham, Hampshire said: "We went to take some pics for my daughters portfolio and took a phone selfie before getting out the main camera.
People enjoy the popular beach of Navagio, or Shipwreck Beach, on the western island of Zakynthos, Greece. Photo / AP
"We were last in queue to get off the boat before we got off and an almighty crash was heard we saw people running up towards the back of the boat screaming.
"I looked up and saw another smash of rock come away and a giant wave hit the small boats and debris hit people on the beach.
"They were trying to scramble and then a giant wave hit rocked and capsized the boats. I then took phone footage.
"My daughter ran up the back of boat to get me and we thought more rocks were going to fall everyone was screaming and asking the boat crew to move out but they were taking other people off the beach onto our boat."
One of the Ionian island's main attractions, Navagio, which can only be reached by boat, has a shipwreck on the shore and is surrounded by steep cliffs.
Video footage uploaded on the website of Greek newspaper Proto Thema showed bathers running in panic as a large part of a cliff peeled off the rockwall and tumbled down at a point close to the sandy shore.
A couple of small vessels overturned from the force of the fall that caused high waves, witnesses told authorities.
A Czech woman suffered back injuries and was transferred to hospital, a coast official said.
Another six people, including two children, had received treatment for minor injuries, a hospital official in Zakynthos told Reuters.
"There was a rumble and a rock fell, followed by a larger rock and then another. They whipped up a whirlpool that overturned (three) boats," an eyewitness told ANA news agency.
Navagio is one of Greece's most popular beaches, taking its name from the remains of a cargo ship that was wrecked there nearly 40 years ago.
The site is also favoured by bungee jumpers and other extreme sports enthusiasts.
Rescue services with sniffer dogs have been searching the beach for possible victims.
The coastguard later said everyone who had visited the beach on tourist boats had been accounted for.
