A 5-year-old girl died this Tuesday, February 20 in the afternoon in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida (United States), buried by a hole that she had dug on the page with her big brother aged 7, reports The Guardian.
Little Sloan Mattingly and her brother Maddox, from Indiana, had dug a hole a little more than a meter deep which suddenly collapsed on them.
The boy found himself with sand up to his neck, but the little girl, too small, was completely buried.
Around twenty adults then took turns trying to get her out by digging around, but the sand continued to collapse and they were unable to help her.
Died in hospital
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach in South Florida has no lifeguards.
Consequently, emergency services were not present nearby when the events occurred.
The first police officers arrived about four minutes after the collapse, paramedics and firefighters moments later, according to 911 calls released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday.
Also read: Holes in the sand: the game can quickly become a death trap
Sandra King, a spokeswoman for the Pompano Beach Fire and Rescue Department, said rescue crews took over from bystanders, using shovels to dig out sand and boards to stabilize the collapse, but when They managed to reach the little girl, she no longer had a pulse.
Paramedics then attempted to resuscitate her, but Sloan was pronounced dead moments later at the hospital.
No information has been provided on the state of health of his big brother.
A tragic story which reminds us that this type of accident occurs every year.
A 20-year-old young man died in 2018 after being buried under a meter of sand on the beach of Lit-et-Mixe (Landes).