Sanitary waste and sewage came up through a manhole covers in St Agnes - headquarters of pressure group campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).

South West Water says heavy rain caused the pumping station to fail.

But SAS is angry that villagers were not warned about the health risk.

You cannot have a situation where the public are not informed about something like this

Surfers Against Sewage

Richard Hardy, from Surfers Against Sewage said: "If there's one place where this sort of thing should not happen, it is this one.

"We have had a few incidents like this since the end of the bathing season.

"On Thursday raw sewage was pouring down the street and there had been no warnings from South West Water.

St Agnes is home of Surfers Against Sewage

"There were about 20 people surfing at Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes.

"You cannot have a situation where the public are not informed about something like this."

He added: "It is clear that the pumping station cannot cope and things could get worse with the potential for worse weather to come."

UK problem

A South West Water spokeswoman said that electricity power supply to the pumping station had been automatically shut down because of the heavy rain.

The rain had also overwhelmed the sewage system - but the company could not forecast the effects of the weather on its pumping stations.

"Unless we called the Met Office, it is impossible to say when this will happen," she said.

And the company could not finance the cost of increasing the size of the sewers, to prevent overspills.

"This kind of problem occurs around the UK - and to increase the size of the sewers would be unaffordable."