Fears for missing woman after body found in car buried by landslide

A BODY has been found in a car which was buried in a tunnel 
entrance by a landslide and a second is believed to be still inside, police have revealed.

The grim discovery was made at Beaminster, Dorset, where two people are feared to have been buried in their car for more than a week following the collapse caused by heavy rain.

The woman has been named locally as pensioner Rosemary Snell, from Misterton, Somerset.

Last night, David Welsh, chairman of Misterton Parish Council, said: “We’re very sorry to lose her. It’s a great shock.”

The pair were reported missing from the Avon and Somerset area by their concerned families. Police inquiries traced them to the Beaminster area, near Dorchester, on 7 July, which coincided with heavy rain and a landslide that closed the Beaminster Tunnel. Excavations of the mud and debris by the fire service located a car at the entrance of the ­tunnel.

Assistant Chief Constable James Vaughan, of Dorset Police, said: “We found at least one body inside, and suspect that among the mud, there is a ­second body inside the car.”

Mr Vaughan added: “Members of the public may ask why it took ten days to discover these bodies and I offer my condolences to the families of those that perished.”

The road was closed and the area searched, and at that time it was not suspected that there was anyone trapped in the landslide.

The A3066 road has been closed at the tunnel since the heavy flooding. It caused a landslide on the hill above the tunnel that fell on to the road and also caused some structural damage to the tunnel.