A young girl has passed away after becoming trapped in a hole in the sand on a beach in Florida.
Yesterday (February 20), a girl who's believed to be between five to seven years of age dug a hole on the beach beach at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in Fort Lauderdale.
The hole is reported as having caved in on the young girl and a seven-year-old young boy too - the girl completely buried and the boy buried to his chest.
Other beachgoers immediately rushed over to the children to help, footage obtained by CBS Miami showing a whole group of people desperately digging to try and free them from the hole, estimated to be around six feet deep.
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The fire department were also called and reached the scene at around 3pm, using support boards to try and prevent more sand from collapsing into the hole, as well as using shovels to try and dig the children out.
It's not known how long the children were buried in the sand for.
Devastatingly, the young girl had stopped breathing by the time she was reached by rescuers.
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Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokesperson Sandra King told the Florida Sun Sentinel they conducted 'life-saving techniques to try and bring her pulse back, and it never did recover and she was pronounced dead at the hospital' - the young child taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
The boy was able to be rescued, however there are varied reports on his current condition. UNILAD has reached out to Pompano Beach Fire Rescue for comment.
King told the Miami Herald the incident on the beach was 'an unfathomable accident'.
And sadly it's not the first time such an accident has occurred.
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In 2005, a three-year-old girl named Abbie Livingstone-Nurse from West Sussex, UK, became trapped in a five-foot hole she dug in the sand in west Cornwall.
According to a police spokesperson, the girl was on holiday with her family at the time and while she was eventually freed from the hole and taken to a local hospital she was later pronounced dead by doctors.
Falmouth Coastguard watch manager James Instance said at the time: "We would advise people that sand is obviously very unstable, so do not dig into sand dunes, or dig large holes in the sand because of the danger of collapse.
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"Make sand castles, dig small holes, make dams and enjoy yourself, but do not dig deep holes."
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.
Poppy Bilderbeck