High winds blamed for arrival of poison jellyfish

Swarms of poisonous tropical jellyfish are invading British beaches, warn marine experts.

At least 19 Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish have been found washed up on our shores in the last week and it is feared many more will be found over the next month.

It is believed they have been swept here from the Caribbean by unseasonably high winds.

Peter Richardson, of the Marine Conservation Society, said: "These are extremely dangerous creatures. You need to stay well away from them. Children are at most risk because these creatures are incredibly beautiful."

The jellyfish is roughly 10-inches long and sausage-shaped. It delivers its sting from purple-blue tentacles which are metres long and lie beneath the water surface. Most human victims drown after being stung because the poison sends their body into spasms of shock. Until last week there had been only five sightings of this jellyfish in British waters in the last five years.

In the last week, 11 have been seen in Dorset and five at Charmouth - where a seven-year-old boy had a lucky escape after being stung on the leg. There have also been reports of sightings in Devon and Cornwall and one in the Isle of Wight.