A young girl died and her brother was hospitalized after the hole they were digging at a beach in Broward County, Florida, buckled on them Tuesday.
The hole, dug on a beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, fell in at 3:16 p.m., the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said on the city’s website.
The children were siblings, both under 8 years old, a Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Sandra King told The Miami Herald.
Both children were inside the hole, which was 5 to 6 feet deep, when it closed in. The boy was buried up to his chest and the girl was completely submerged, Ms. King told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“I mean, you saw grown men digging with shovels and buckets, and nobody could find her,” an unnamed witness told WPLG-TV.
The girl was under the sand for at least 15 minutes, the witness told Miami ABC affiliate WPLG.
First responders used shovels and boards to dig to prevent more sand from falling in.
The girl was dug out, but she didn’t have a pulse. The boy was in stable condition at the hospital.
“We were conducting life-saving techniques to try to bring her pulse back, and it never did recover, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital,” Ms. King said.
Neither child was identified by the authorities, who are investigating the incident.