A seven-year-old girl died after a large sand hole she was digging with her brother collapsed on them at a Florida beach on Tuesday. According to ABC News, Sloan Mattingly and her brother Maddox, 9, were pulled out of sand and taken to hospital where she died. The incident took place at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea - a town in Broward County about 33 miles north of Miami. Maddox was found buried up to his chest and the girl was underneath him when the emergency crew reached the spot.
"Our hearts are heavy in LBTS today after learning two children were trapped in the sand," the Town of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea said in a statement.
"The preliminary investigation revealed the children, and their parents were on vacation from Indiana. Investigators say the children were digging a hole in the sand when they were trapped. The circumstances into this incident remain under investigation," ABC News quoted the Broward County Sheriff's Office as saying in a statement.
A video of the incident has also been shared on social media by witnesses. It shows one of the children being rushed away by first responders after being pulled from the hole.
"You saw grown men digging with shovels and buckets and nobody could find her. I guess when the wall caved in she may have been laying flat and so maybe it just kind of pancaked her. The dad was able to pull his son out but the daughter was still underneath the sand," one of the individuals who was present told ABC-affiliate WPLG.
Fox News said locals on the beach frantically tried to dig the children out of the hole.
"It was an unfathomable accident," Sandra King, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, told.
The incident remains under investigation, according to police.
