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Huge chunk falls off Rügen's famous coastline

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Huge chunk falls off Rügen's famous coastline
A file photo of the coastline taken in November 2010. Photo: DPA

The northern German island of Rügen lost another 15,000 cubic metres of its famous chalk cliff coastline to the Baltic Sea this week, police in Stralsund said Tuesday.

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The slide occurred on Monday north of the ferry port Mukran. Eyewitness reports and an investigation have ruled out the possibility than any bystanders were injured, they said.

In recent months heavy rain has led to several major landslides along the famous coastline in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with experts warning of more to come.

In November 2010, another 10,000 cubic metres fell from the coastline at the Jasmund National Park following heavy rains, the national park service reported.

But the anticipation of such slides has not prompted officials at Germany’s smallest national park to close off areas near the cliffs, with visitors being told that they should expect such natural disasters to occur. The last death due to coastal collapse in the area was in Möchgut in 2005.

Destruction along the chalk cliffs, made famous by German Romantic painter Casper David Friedrich, is recorded several times each year.

Another slide in July 2010 pulled just 100 cubic metres of cliff into the sea, while the largest recorded slide was in 2008, when 25,000 cubic metres of coastline were lost.

DAPD/ka

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