Overhanging the cliffs at a height of 40 metres the officers, who specialise in searching and rescuing in collapsed buildings and stru-ctures, started removing parts of the cliff deemed to be unstable in an intervention that spanned Wednesday and Thursday and was requested by the Port-uguese Environment Agency (APA).
A spokesperson for the GNR told newspaper Correio da Manhã that the officers are removing the unsafe blocks of rock now to prevent them from falling onto the beach below when it gets busier.
That was echoed by Sebastião Teixeira, regional director of the APA, who said the rock edges has “obvious signs of instability” and “we’re making them fall now so that they don’t fall when the chapel and the beach are busier.”