Volunteers scour Marseille’s beaches for litter during mass cleaning drive

Volunteers desperate to tackle the ongoing litter problem on a Marseille beach are promoting regular cleaning drives, where people can pick up as much as one tonne of rubbish a day.

From afar, France's southern coastline may appear pristine but upon closer inspection, plastic straws, bottles, cigarette butts and even Christmas baubles can be found scattered amongst the sand.

Volunteers and charities holding the regular cleaning drives also hope to prevent wildlife from inadvertently eating the littered waste.

One child volunteer said: "If turtles find plastic bags in the water, they might think it's a jellyfish.

"They eat the rubbish and then they suffocate."