Police confirm discovery of second body in car buried under Beaminster Tunnel landslide

A second body has been discovered in a car found crushed underneath a landslide at Beaminster Tunnel.

Dorset Police have confirmed that the bodies of a man and a woman have been recovered from the vehicle, which was taken to Weymouth police station yesterday afternoon.

A car is recovered from underneath the landslide at Beaminster Tunnel yesterday afternoon

"No further details of their identity will be released until the identification process is complete in conjunction with HM Coroner," said police in a statement this afternoon.

"Officers are appealing for anyone who may have seen the victims' silver coloured Skoda motor car being driven on the A3066 from Beaminster village centre to Beaminster Tunnel between 9.30pm and 10.30pm on Saturday, July 7.

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"This was the recent day of very heavy rainfall throughout Dorset."

The car was buried under hundreds of tonnes of mud, rubble, water and trees following the landslide at the tunnel.

The tunnel, and the A3066 between the B3163 Clay Lane junction and the B3164 junction, has been closed in both directions since the landslide.

Excavation work began on Monday evening after concerns were raised by Avon and Somerset Police officers investigating reports of a missing couple from Somerset.

Officers had traced bank and phone records and established that the couple had been in the Beaminster area at the time of the landslide.

Police confirmed that one body had been discovered yesterday afternoon, and suspected that a second body was inside the car.

Assistant chief constable James Vaughan said the vehicle was taken to Weymouth for special investigators to "take care and time to cut the vehicle open under cover in a dignified manner".

Anyone with information about the car's journey between Beaminster village centre to Beaminster Tunnel, between 9.30pm and 10.30pm on July 7, should call Dorset Police on 101, quoting incident number 16:386.