A young girl died Tuesday after a hole she had dug with her brother at a Florida beach suddenly collapsed, burying them both, authorities said.
The boy, who is about 8, was trapped only up to his chest and was eventually pulled from the sand at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and taken to the hospital, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue said. The girl, who was about 7 years old, was completely buried beneath the boy at the time of the collapse, the Sun Sentinel reports.
Fire rescue crews were called to the scene at around 3 p.m. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokesperson Sandra King said both children were inside the hole—which was about 5 or 6 feet deep—at the time of the collapse. It’s not clear if an adult was helping the children as they dug the hole.
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Distressing video footage recorded by a witness shows beachgoers desperately digging in an effort to save the children. When the girl was eventually found, she wasn’t breathing. She was rushed to the Broward Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where she was pronounced dead. It’s not known how long she had been trapped under the sand.
The Miami Herald, which reported that the victims were siblings, added that King said it wasn’t clear exactly how old the children are because their parents were too distraught to speak with authorities. “It was an unfathomable accident,” the Herald quoted her as saying.
