Emergency services have scrambled to a seafront in Essex after receiving several reports of beachgoers coughing and struggling to breathe on Sunday.

Police, the ambulance service and the fire service were called to the seafront off Fourth Avenue in Frinton shortly after 2pm.

Beachgoers said they had been left struggling to breathe but the cause is unknown and is being investigated.

Speculation online of a fuel spill was not confirmed by police or the ambulance service.

A mother who was on a family day out in Frinton told how her one of her twin daughters was left “gasping” for breath.

Miriam Lansdell, from Derbyshire, said: “My daughter started coughing. She said ‘I don’t feel good. It hurts to breathe in’. My other daughter was gasping and couldn’t form words because she couldn’t breathe well enough.”

The 45-year-old mental health worker said she had also had difficulty breathing as she lay on the sand drying off after a dip in the water.

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