Family pay tribute to Arthur Cave, 15, who was airlifted to hospital after walkers found him on Sussex coastal path but later died of his injuries

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The teenage son of musician Nick Cave has died after falling from the top of chalk cliffs at Brighton.

Arthur Cave, 15, was airlifted to hospital on Tuesday evening after walkers found him on the coastal path at the foot of the Ovingdean Gap, 60ft below the clifftop. Members of the public attempted to give him first aid.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nick Cave and his sons Arthur and Earl arrive at the Hobbit premiere in London in December 2012. Photograph: infuklo-108/INFphoto.com/Corbis

His death is not being treated as suspicious. Police are not linking the death to an earlier incident in which a group of teenage girls were photographed sitting with their legs dangling over a receding cliff near Seven Sisters Country Park – more than 10 miles from Ovingdean Gap. The cliff edge at the beauty spot where the schoolboy was found has been fenced off.

Nick Cave and his wife, Susie, paid tribute to Arthur, who also leaves behind his twin brother, Earl, in a short statement confirming his death.

“Our son Arthur died on Tuesday evening. He was our beautiful, happy, loving boy,” it read. “We ask that we be given the privacy our family needs to grieve at this difficult time.”

Schoolmates came to lay flowers at the spot near where the teenager was found. Nick and Susie Cave briefly visited the scene of the tragedy on Wednesday in a black Mini, stopping to read the tributes and speak to friends gathered there.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Friends laying flowers and tributes at the site where Arthur fell. Photograph: SWNS.com

A Sussex police spokeswoman said: “A 15-year-old boy who was found with life-threatening injuries on the underpass of Ovingdean Gap, having fallen from the cliff above, has sadly died in hospital on Tuesday.

“Members of the public carried out first aid on the boy before he was taken to the Royal Sussex county hospital, Brighton, just after 6pm. He later died there of his injuries. The death is being dealt with by the coroner’s office.”

A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: “Newhaven coastguard were called by Sussex police to attend a report of a child who had fallen from the top of the cliff.”

Nick Cave, 57, is best known as the lead singer of alternative rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, which he formed in Melbourne in 1983. One of the most enduring musicians of the 80s, he has collaborated with acts including Johnny Cash, the Flaming Lips and PJ Harvey.

Cave has four sons, two from previous relationships as well as Arthur and Earl.

Cave married model Susie Bick in 1999. Bick had featured in Vivienne Westwood campaigns and was on the cover of Cave’s 2013 album Push the Sky Away. She recently launched a new clothing line, The Vampire’s Wife, inspired by an unfinished book title by Cave.

The family live in Brighton, about three miles (5km) from the spot where Arthur was found.

The twins had recently completed year 10 at the private St Bede’s school in Hailsham. Both starred in the school’s production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, starring Arthur as villainous sidekick Borachio, which the school’s website said he “played with panache”.

The family settled in Brighton 11 years ago. Cave had previously lived in Melbourne, London, Berlin and São Paulo.