A teenager is lucky to be alive after being trapped up to his neck in sand at a coastal holiday spot in Lincolnshire.
The 14-year-old boy had to be rescued by local coastguard teams after the hole he was digging on the beach at Anderby Creek collapsed, burying almost his entire body.
He had been standing upright when the hole reportedly caved in on top of him.
His parents kept his mouth clear of sand by scooping it away until rescue teams from nearby Skegness and Mablethorpe arrived just before 1pm on Saturday, the BBC reports.
Fran Wilkins, HM Coastguard senior coastal operations officer, said it was a “challenging task” to dig him out.
“What happens as you disturb the sand, there’s a high likelihood of it collapsing back in and the priority was to make sure at at all times his airway was protected and his head remained above the sand,” she told the BBC.
Teams spent about an hour digging out the teenager before he was checked over by ambulance crews.
Ms Wilkins said: “Luckily he did remain calm throughout which definitely helped reduce the panic and allowed everyone to get to work and do their job.”
She praised his parents for keeping the sand out of his mouth and calling for help.
“They kept his head clear and his mouth and nose free so he could breathe and waited for more to help which was really really important for him,” she told the BBC.
Anderby Creek is a small holiday village in Lincolnshire, north of Skegness, that sits on a quiet and sandy beach.
Anderby is on the North Sea coast, four kilometres north of Chapel St Leonards, and is known for its caravan parks and holiday retreats.
