Lifeguards at a San Diego beach raced against the encroaching tide to rescue a 16-year-old girl after a deep sand hole collapsed, burying the teen up to her neck, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.
Beachgoers at Mission Beach crowded around first responders who were frantically digging to free the trapped teen from the six- to eight-foot hole around 4:50 p.m.
"We saw that she was buried up to her neck, we could only see her head and her arms sticking out," Lt. Jacob Magness of San Diego Lifeguards told FOX5 San Diego.
Good Samaritan Richard Mastan told the outlet that the teen was "way down there" in the hole and that he jumped into action to help.
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"Since I already had a shovel in my hand, they could see ‘don’t bother that guy, just let him keep digging,’ so I was just digging like crazy," Mastan told FOX5.
The girl, whose name was not released publicly, was digging in the sand with friends when she fell into the hole, the San Diego Fire Department told KFMB-TV.
The teen’s friends initially tried to dig her out, though were unsuccessful and flagged down lifeguards, according to reports.
Magness told KNSD-TV that rescuers tried to pull the girl out, but she was buried too deep beneath the sand, adding "that’s when the digging had to start."
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It took first responders about 20 minutes to fully dig out the teen and free her from the sand hole, the outlet reported.
Video from the scene shows rescuers helping the teen out of the hole. Paramedics evaluated the girl, according to FOX5, before she was released to her parents.
Experts say that deep sand holes are dangerous because if they cave in, the sand becomes compact, trapping anyone caught in the collapse under a tremendous weight that can deprive them of oxygen.
In February, a sand hole collapsed on a South Florida beach and killed a 7-year-old Indiana girl on vacation with her family.
Sloan Mattingly was digging a five- to six-foot deep hole with her 9-year-old brother in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, when the sand hole suddenly caved in and buried her alive. Her brother was covered nearly up to his neck.
Despite the immediate efforts of bystanders and first responders, Sloan was pronounced dead at a hospital. Her brother survived the ordeal.
Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
