Australian police have dug up a record haul of cocaine on a remote Western Australia beach.

Police said about one tonne of the drug, worth up to A$250m ($127m) appeared to have buried by a smuggling gang in Dulverton Bay, about 650km (397 miles) north of Perth, early on Friday morning.

The gang brought the drugs ashore from a 30-metre (100-foot) boat posing as a fishing vessel. The boat later sank in unexplained circumstances.

A police spokesman said five people had been arrested.

'Five-million hits'

Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison in the Australian capital, Canberra, said initial tests indicated the seizure could weigh up to one tonne, but the exact weight and composition were yet to be established.

"This seizure represents a major blow to international drug cartels," he said.

Mr Ellison said the haul represented five million hits of cocaine.

Australian police have made other big seizures recently:

• Just over one week ago, Queensland police seized a record amount of amphetamines.

• In April, about half-a-million ecstasy tablets were discovered hidden inside a shipment of pineapples aboard a Chinese cargo ship.

• Until now Australia's largest cocaine haul was about half a tonne found on a yacht off Sydney in February 2000.