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German tourist rescued from self-dug hole on Spanish beach

Spanish firefighters saved a 23-year-old German tourist from being buried alive on a Tenerife beach on Wednesday after a tunnel he built in the sand collapsed.

German tourist rescued from self-dug hole on Spanish beach
Screenshot from www.lainformacion.com. Photo: DPA

The young man had apparently planned to connect two holes more than two metres deep with a tunnel, but the sand collapsed around him, trapping him up to his neck for almost two hours.

His girlfriend called emergency services, who rushed to the scene in a helicopter and managed to pull the man out uninjured with the help of other nearby beachgoers.

“He had built a three-metre (10-foot) deep hole when the sand buried him,” a Tenerife fire department spokeswoman told news agency AFP, adding that five vehicles and 15 fire fighters were involved in the rescue.

Click here for a video of the beach rescue.

Spanish newspaper Diario de Avisos charged the vacationer with stupidly endangering himself and forcing the massive rescue operation.

“Foolishness cost the Canary Islands taxpayers €20,000,” the paper wrote.

In July a 12-year-old Swiss boy died after a tunnel he dug in sand dunes with his two brothers at a beach at Castello d’Empuries in northwestern Spain collapsed around him, AFP reported.

DPA/AFP/The Local/ka

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