Claire Reid
A man has warned people about the dangers of mudflats which look just like regular ground - but can swallow you up.
Mudflats are areas of flat, muddy ground that are covered by the sea when it comes in at high tide.
When the tide goes out, these flats can look like solid ground, but if a person were to walk on them they could become trapped.
Alaska State Troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel warned earlier this year: “What looks like solid ground can turn into quicksand with little to no notice.”
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And now in a clip shared on TikTok, a man called Darren has shown how quickly the flats can swallow up a rock.
Text on the video reads: “This is a safety video to share with everybody of how mudflats in Alaska will suck you up. This was a five-pound rock.”
“Here is a mudflat. This is where people, tourists, they die in mudflats because they suck you up.”
He then chucks a five-pound rock into the mudflat, where it lands with a splat. In moments, the rock begins to sink as the space fills up with water, before disappearing out of sight completely.
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“See that? Look at all that water – you see that? That rock is going away. Yep. So that’s what happens. People come to Alaska to go on the mudflats like this and then… sucks them up and drowns them.
“So if you’re in Alaska, ever go to Alaska, don’t go on the mudflats or they will suck you up and drown you.”
In a follow up comment, Darren shared further grim details, explaining: “What happens is people get stuck sometimes up to their waist and they can’t get out. Tide comes in and goodbye.”
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People have been left horrified after watching the clip, with one TikTok user saying: “So you’re telling me there could be someone stuck in there and we may never know?”
Another wrote: “Well great…I had just gotten rid of my quicksand fear and now it’s back."
Someone else shared: “I got stuck in mud once, sunk to my waist before I hit a rock and stopped. I'm still scared of mud today.”
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While a fourth person commented: “Are people going on these by mistake? Like I see this and instantly get the feeling I want to be nowhere near these”
In May this year, 20-year-old Zachary Porter, from Illinois, died after he became trapped in a mudflat in Alaska.
He and his friends were out on the mudflats, where he found himself trapped waist-deep in the mud.
His friends attempted to free him, but the tide came in too quickly, and he tragically drowned.