A young girl was buried in sand and died Tuesday when a deep hole she was digging with a little boy collapsed on them both at a south Florida beach, authorities said.
Emergency crews responding around 3 p.m. to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea found the boy, who is about 8 years old, buried up his chest in sand, said Sandra King, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue.
The girl, about 7 years old, was completely buried underneath the boy, King told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The hole was 5 or 6 feet deep when the collapse happened, she said.
Rescuers used support boards to keep more sand from collapsing in as they used shovels to dig the children out, King said. She didn’t know how long they were buried.
The girl was rushed to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where she was pronounced dead, King said. The boy was hospitalized in stable condition.
It wasn’t immediately known whether an adult was helping the children dig the hole.
Miami television station WTVJ reported that cellphone video from a witness showed desperate beachgoers using their hands to dig sand out of the hole as they tried to rescue the kids trapped underneath.
Rescuers used support boards to keep sand from collapsing further in as they used shovels with the help of good Samaritans to dig the children out, King said. She said it wasn’t clear how long they were buried.