Teen Girl Rescued After Getting Buried in Collapsed Sand Pit on San Diego Beach

Lifeguards and bystanders rushed to rescue a teenage girl who became buried in a sand pit at a California beach on Tuesday.

A 16-year-old girl at Mission Beach in San Diego was in a sand hole approximately six to eight feet deep when it collapsed at around 4:50 p.m., pinning her inside as the tide was moving in. The incident happened near Belmont Park, north of Lifeguard Tower 13.

The girl's friends began trying to dig her out, and when that didn't work, they flagged down lifeguards, prompting an emergency call to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

"We just saw her head and arms sticking up," San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Jacob Magness told NBC 7. "The initial rescue attempt was to try to pull her out, which was not successful, so then that's when the digging had to start."

“Since I already had a shovel in my hand, they could see ‘don’t bother that guy, just let him keep digging,’ so I was just digging like crazy,” bystander Richard Mastan told KUSI. "I was so scared for her because she was way down there."

After 20 to 30 minutes of digging, the teen was finally freed from the sand pit. Lifeguards assisted her to a paramedic truck, where she was assessed and then released to her parents.

—TMX contributed to this report.