A SHOCKED teenager scrambled for her camera after spotting a baby seal pup on the beach on her way home from work.

Lucy Brown, of Gordon Road, Dovercourt, was on her way home from The Cabin bakery where she works when she spotted a mysterious grey shape.

She says she spotted the baby seal lounging on the sand opposite the Cliff Hotel, Marine Parade, on Dovercourt seafront and rushed to take a picture with her phone camera.

Lucy, 16, said: “I was biking home and going along the seafront for a change, when I saw this grey thing on the beach in the distance.

“I ran down the hill. When I came over it raised its head looked at me but it didn’t seem scared.

“I have never seen one that close in my life it was amazing.”

Lucy, who attends Harwich and Dovercourt Sixth Form, returned to see if the seal was still there when she finished hockey training at 8pm.

She said: “It was still on the beach at 8.30pm but swam off when a dog barked at it.

“It was there for a long time and I was worried it could be injured but it looked perfectly fine - the RSPCA are aware too.

“The seal just didn’t seem to want to go back in the water.”