A tornado-like cloud was spotted off the coast yesterday.

Witnesses described seeing the giant funnel of cloud from Brighton to Bognor at about 7pm.

Eyewitness Mark Shipley, of Brighton, said: "I was driving to work and saw this tornado off the coast of Brighton, so I pulled over to take some pictures. It was there for about three or four minutes then it disappeared."

Weather experts say twisting cloud formations only qualify as tornadoes if they make contact with the ground.

Coastguards launched a lifeboat as a precaution