Dorset Police has confirmed that the bodies of two people have been found in landslide debris close to the northern entrance of the Beaminster Tunnel on the A3066.
The tunnel has been closed since the landslide on 7 July while structural inspection were carried out but the bodies, which were inside a car, were not discovered until yesterday evening following an alert from Avon and Somerset Police which were trying to trace the missing people.
In a joint statement with the Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, the Dorset Police said: “Crews were subsequently sent to investigate the area, and following a period of excavation discovered a vehicle under a large volume of earth and mud.”
The elderly couple from Somerset were reported missing soon after the landslip but it was only through tracing credit card use that Avon and Somerset Police were able to identify the last known whereabouts of the couple.
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