A desperate mum and dad were heard screaming for help as they tried to stop their 14-year-old son from sinking in into a sandy beach.
The quick-thinking parents stopped their boy from being buried alive when a hole he was digging on a beach collapsed beneath him in Anderby Creek, near Skegness, in Lincolnshire.
For a moment, only the young boy's head remained visible and his parents had to dig sand away from his mouth while 999 responders raced to the scene.
Rescuers said the 14-year-old was standing up in the hole when it collapsed beneath his feet.
Had he been lying down the incident at 12.45pm on Saturday could have ended in tragedy, they said.
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Anderby Creek, Lincolnshire (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Do you know the parents of the boy? Email benjamin.lynch@reachplc.com
Fran Wilkins, HM Coastguard senior coastal operations officer, praised his parents for keeping the sand out of his mouth and calling for help.
She said: "What happens as you disturb the sand, there's a high likelihood of it collapsing back in and the priority was to make sure at at all times his airway was protected and his head remained above the sand.
"It needed lots of people in a coordinated effort to remove the sand in a way that we could get him out of the hole as quickly and as safely as possible."
"Luckily, he did remain calm throughout which definitely helped reduce the panic and allowed everyone to get to work and do their job."
She added: "There's that instinct to keep trying to dig, but the more you disturb and weaken that sand that has collapsed in, you're potentially going to create a much bigger hole.
"They kept his head clear and his mouth and nose free so he could breathe and waited for more to help which was really really important for him."
'They kept his head clear and his mouth and nose free so he could breathe' (FLPA/John Eveson/REX/Shutterstock)She warned beachgoers to consider the size and location of the hole and be mindful that "the larger it is the higher the chances it may collapse".
It took coastguard rescue teams and firefighters more than an hour to dig him out because of fears the sand could collapse completely.
Sand hole collapses are rare according to experts, but people digging on beaches should be aware of them.
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Last year, the Cornish coastguard warned people they should be aware that digging could potentially "put your life at risk," The Packet reported.
Writing on the coastguard’s social media page, they said: "Sand hole collapses are rare but can be lethal if you become trapped in one.
"There’s nothing wrong with digging holes at the beach and filling them with water for your kids to play in. But if you dig a hole so deep that your head is barely poking out or burrow into a sand dune then you could be putting your life at risk.
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