A SPORTS car became part of the landscape at Berrow last weekend after becoming stuck in the mud on the beach there.

The 22-year-old driver from Bristol got stuck after he decided to drive onto Berrow beach on Saturday evening, rescuers say.

His white Toyota Celica soon ran into trouble when it got bogged down in the thick mud on the beach and began to sink as the tide swept inland.

The driver tried to push his car free but was forced to abandon it.

Burnham’s BARB Search and Rescue team was called to the scene on Sunday morning but were unable to recover the car safely.

A spokesperson for Burnham Search and Rescue said: “The car was pretty well submerged in mud when we arrived, having been covered by two deep tides.

“It will be retrievable with commercial winching equipment but it will be a big job.

If people heeded the warnings this sort of thing could be avoided.”

Sedgemoor District Council manages the beach and said the car’s owner arranged recovery of the vehicle, which was embedded hundreds of metres out on the mud.

This summer several cars have become stranded after motorists drove onto dangerous parts of the beaches at Brean and Berrow.

In July a Ford Mondeo got stuck on Brean beach and in May another two cars were trapped after visitors chose to ignore the signs warning them of the soft sand and mud which can pose a real threat to safety as the tide comes in.