A springer spaniel has had a miraculous escape from death after it jumped off a 300ft cliff chasing a seagull.

Poppy was on a walk at a picnic spot in East Sussex on February 14 when she started chasing the bird and ran off the cliff, landing in the sea below.

The three-year-old survived the fall and managed to swim ashore where she waited before being rescued by a RNLI crew.

Her owners Kelly Ixer, 26, and Ben Markwick, 31, said they were "indebted" to the Newhaven-based lifeboat team.

The couple, who have a three-week-old son Henry, had asked Mr Markwick's sister Lia and her partner Stephen Winslade to take Poppy out for some exercise on the fateful day.

Gavin Butcher, a volunteer lifeboat crew member of the team that rescued Poppy from Brass Point, Seven Sisters, said Poppy was hoisted to the lifeboat and wrapped in a blanket. She was then handed over to the coastguard.

Mr Butcher, 46, said: "Springer spaniels tend to get excited and I believe she was chasing a seagull at the time."

Poppy's lungs had partially collapsed, but she is now fully recovered.

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