Coastguard Safety Warning After Girl Buried Alive on Welsh Beach
HM Coastguard has issued a Safety Warning for all Beachgoers to be careful when near sand dunes. This is following a young girl had to be rescued from a terrifying incident on a Welsh Beach during May Half Term.
HM Coastguard was alerted to an incident on Newborough Beach just after 5.15pm on Tuesday 29th May and Rhosneigr and Bangor Coastguard Rescue Teams were sent to the scene alongside North Wales Fire and Rescue Service. An 11-year-old girl got trapped at Newborough beach on Anglesey after a hole and tunnel had been dug. In a miraculous escape members of the public managed to dig the girl’s head free allowing her to breath, before coastguards and fire crews arrived and managed to free her completely.
HM Coastguard Urging Parents to Keep a Close Eye on Their Children
The serious nature of the incident has prompted HM Coastguard to issue a strong safety warning against digging holes and tunnels in sand dunes and they are also urging parents to keep a close eye on their children when near sand dunes.
Gareth A Jones, Senior Maritime Operations Officer for HM Coastguard said: “This young girl is very lucky to have escaped serious injury or even death. It was a very close call indeed and the circumstances could have been very different had those who’d helped her not managed to free her airway. Sand dunes by their very nature are notoriously unstable and digging large holes or tunnels in them can be extremely dangerous or even fatal.”
“People need to think that if it’s taken two hours to dig the hole or tunnel – that’s how long it will take someone to dig them out. We would urge anyone at the seaside to take extra care in sand dunes and especially not to dig or tunnel into the side of them. We’re not trying to tell kids not to dig at the beach but when you dig into the side of sand dunes or dig giant holes, the chances of a sand collapse are extremely high.”
