Several beaches along the Southern California coast had to be shut down after eight million gallons of sewage spilled into the ocean.

Beaches in Long Beach and San Pedro were closed to swimmers and surfers because of the contaminated material.

The closure came 48 hours after the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the millions of gallons had been discharged at about 6am on Monday.

The spillage entered the Dominguez Channel leading up to the area around Cabrillo Beach.

Authorities said sewage entered into the channel because of a spill but it is unclear what led to the discharge.

Water off Cabrillo Beach was declared off-limit after health officials recorded a spike in bacterial levels.

They said the bacterial levels needed to return to acceptable readings before the beach could be allowed to reopen.

Long Beach officials also closed all beaches because of the spill.

In addition, Orange County also shut down some stretches of the beach "due to the occurrence of multiple sewage spills that were caused by weather-impacted surges on sewer mains in areas of Los Angeles County that border Orange County."

Officials said: "Out of an abundance of caution, the affected ocean water area will remain closed to swimming, surfing, and diving until the results of follow-up water quality monitoring meet acceptable standards."

Another spill of approximately 40,000 gallons of sewage was also reported in Commerce.

The sewage flowed into the Los Angeles River, which leads to the Pacific Ocean.

Local residents had already been advised to avoid entering ocean water because of bacterial runoff from the recent round of torrential rains.