A CORONER has opened and adjourned inquests into the deaths of two best friends who were found at the foot of cliffs.

The inquest hearing at Middlesbrough Town Hall heard that the bodies of Harry Watson and Alex Jeffrey Yeoman were formally identified by their parents.

The two 17-year-olds were discovered at the foot of Huntcliff, in Saltburn, east Cleveland, at about 7pm last Friday evening.

Cleveland Police have said enquiries are ongoing to establish what exactly happened, but Harry’s mother Tanya has said she believes it was a tragic accident and they fell while taking photos at the beauty spot.

Police have already ruled out any suspicious circumstances.

Harry, a student of St Cuthbert’s Walk, Liverton Mines, who is originally from Dorset, and Alex, of Dundas Street, Loftus, an apprentice joiner, had both attended Brotton’s Freebrough Academy.

Jo Wharton, Teesside Assistant Coroner, said Harry’s body had been identified by his father Mark Watson and Alex’s body by his mother Jane Hume.

The inquest hearing was adjourned by the assistant coroner who gave no date for when the full inquest would be heard.

Alex was a stepson who had four siblings and two further step siblings, while Harry was one of four children.

Tanya Watson told the Times newspaper it was a “tragic, awful accident”.

She said: “They were happy young lads who had been friends for years. Harry was in a good frame of mind and I know Alex well and he was, too.

“They were two lads who liked to be outdoors and they would go walking on the cliffs, that’s what they loved to do. They grew up around here and they knew the area very well . . . it’s something they had always done for as long as they had known each other.

“They have been having a laugh together and taking some photographs as they liked to do when for some reason they slipped and fell.

“There is no suggestion of anything else. We’re just trying to come to terms with it, but it’s very, very hard.”

Huntcliff has been the scene of many rescues in the past with emergency services regularly called to visitors getting cut off from the tide.

The principal at Freebrough, Rachel Prentice, said the college was devastated by the loss of the two 17-year-olds who she described as two lovely young men.