A RARE blue jellyfish thought to be from thousands of miles away was found along Hampshire beach.

The blubber jellyfish animal, which is larger than a human hand and is native to waters around Australia, was spotted at Hill Head by a resident who was going for a walk.

Denise Satchwell, 47, who lives nearby, regularly sees fish and jellyfish along the beach but has never come across a jellyfish of this kind.

She said: “I go on regular walks along Hill Head and have seen lots of large plain jelly fishes. But this time, I was walking along the beach and came across the blue blubber jelly fish for the first time.

“It’s very unusual to find one like that in this area. I tried to move it into the water but it was stuck to the bottom of the beach, as I usually move jellyfish back into the sea.”

She added: “I come here several times a week and spot unusual fish. I’m curious as to why people are brave enough to swim here because of the jelly fish, but when I pointed this out to one of the swimmers, they were unaware of them.

“I also see lots of environmentalists coming here to clean the beach of plastic, as well as people coming here to fish and fly kites, but the place is usually very deserted. I like walking along here as there is lots of nature.”

The common blue blubber jellyfish grows to 35 centimetres in diameter and is not normally dangerous to humans unlike the infamous bluebottle, also known as Portuguese man o’ war,.

The NHS recommends that anyone stung by a jellyfish should rinse the affected area with seawater and not fresh water.

They should remove any spines from the skin using tweezers and soak the affected area in very warm water or as hot as can be tolerated for at least 30 minutes.

Similarly painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen can help to ease the symptoms.

Last month after a week of excessive heat 50 jellyfish were found washed up on Calshot beach. Experts said the their numbers were partly due to climate change, which is changing our ecosystems.