A student who threw a sandbag off a bridge has been told he could have killed someone.

Harvey Stocks dropped a 15kg bag off George IV Bridge and 40ft down on to Merchant Street, just off the Cowgate, on March 13.

The 20-year-old appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday to admit throwing the sandbag to the danger of pedestrians in the early hours of the morning.

The incident, which was captured on CCTV, is the latest in a string of similar cases at George IV Bridge.

A woman was left paralysed ten years ago after she was struck by a traffic cone thrown from the bridge on to the Cowgate below.

Defence solicitor Nigel Bruce said Stocks, from Darlington in County Durham, was about to start his third year studying computer science at Edinburgh University.

On the night in question, he had been out drinking with a group of friends.

Mr Bruce said his client's family were in court and said Stocks was "not really a drinker".

He said he had been told by a member of the group that there was no one in the street.

Sheriff Kenneth McGowan told Stocks there had been several similar incidents and they always ended in the person responsible being prosecuted.

He said: "I know this area. There a number of doorways and someone could just have walked out and you could have killed them."

"That would have been a tragedy for that person and for you. It was reckless and crass stupidity. You had a lucky escape."

Stocks was ordered to pay a £750 fine.