A trip by tourists to watch the sunset among the singing sand dunes of a picturesque beauty spot ended badly when a huge dust storm obscured the view and blew away a lot of their possessions.

The tourists were part of a group that had gone to the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Lake Nature Park in Dunhuang in China which is also where the singing sand dunes are located and when the wind blows they give out a drumming sound.

However, when the wind blew this time, instead of singing there were cries of panic as it whipped up a frightening looking sandstorm which blew away a lot of the tourist possessions including inflatable mattresses and other items that they had taken with them to enjoy the day at the beach.

Instead they had to wear masks so that they could breathe and glasses and huddled together as the sand whipped around the dune buggies that they had used to travel to the mountains which are part of the Kumtag Desert.

A tour guide organiser identified only as Mr Qin said that when they set off the sky was still blue and all the indications were that it would be a beautiful sunset, but the wind then suddenly whipped up creating the sandstorm which he said had only lasted for a short while.