Girl Dies When Large Hole Collapsed on Oregon Beach

Efforts to rescue girl thwarted when hole kept collapsing.

ByABC News
August 29, 2014, 10:25 PM

— -- A girl playing on an Oregon beach died today when a large hole she was playing in collapsed and buried her, officials told ABC News.

Frantic efforts by others on the beach were unable to rescue the 9-year-old girl.

“When we arrived on the scene with some of our officers, people were trying to dig the girl out of a fairly large hole, but the thing kept collapsing back in on them,” Lt. Jerry Palmer of the Lincoln City police department said.

“When they finally got her out she was unconscious and not breathing,” Palmer said.

Fire Rescue Capt. Jim Kusz said the girl was under the sand for about five minutes.

Palmer said his officers did CPR on the girl until medics arrived, but when she was taken to the hospital "she was not breathing." She was later pronounced dead.

The lieutenant said he did not know whether the girl, who was not immediately identified, had dug the hole or was playing in a hole that she had found on the beach.