Teenage boy rescued from quicksand in Cumbria

Updated
teen rescued from quicksand at arnside beach
teen rescued from quicksand at arnside beach


Holidaymakers in Cumbria have been warned "to always be vigilant on the sands" after a 15-year-old boy had to be rescued from a beach at Arnside.

The teenager was trying to retrieve a ball at the shore when he became trapped up to his knees near Arnside pier at around 11.30am on Saturday, The Westmoreland Gazette reports.

It took 15 minutes for Arnside and Milnthorpe fire crews and Arnside Coastguard to pull the boy out of the sand.

An RNLI spokeswoman told the BBC that beachgoers had been warned "to always be vigilant on the sands".

She added that the boy was not believed to be injured but was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Last year, a couple sparked a full-scale emergency rescue - and a race against the tide - when they found themselves knee and waist-deep in quicksand on a beach in Cumbria.

The man, 46, and the woman, 25, were yelling for help as they began to sink at Sandside, Morecambe Bay - the same spot a 14-year-old became trapped two weeks earlier.

The 40-minute rescue involved coastguards from Morecambe and Arnside, paramedics, Cumbria Fire and Rescue, Bay Search and Rescue, the police, and a Royal National Lifeboat Institute team on a hovercraft.

Local resident Craig Woodburn, 27, threw a lifebelt to the couple, and tried to keep them calm.

He said: "The tide was due in so it was very scary, but I did what anybody else would have done."

The pair had been near a sign that reads: 'DANGER Beware fast rising tides, quicksands, hidden channels.'



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