A 16-year-old girl got trapped up to her neck in a hole in the sand at Mission Beach in San Diego just an hour before high tide. Good Samaritans and lifeguards were able to get her out in time.

The girl, who was not named by authorities, was in a sand hole when it collapsed at around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday. Her attempts to escape the hole only sent more sand pouring back in.

The hole was about 8 to 10 feet deep.

“Sand is very heavy and moves quite easily. The teens who were trying to free her were not aware that their efforts were making the situation worse,” a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesperson told USA Today.

When her friends were unable to free her from the sand, they got help from lifeguards and other bystanders. 

“We saw that she was buried up to her neck, we could only see her head and her arms sticking out,” San Diego Lifeguards Lt. Jacob Magness told San Diego Fox affiliate KUSI-TV.

A good Samaritan who helped with the digging, Richard Mastan, told KUSI-TV, “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.”

Time was of the essence, as high tide was due about an hour after the hole collapsed. The hole was only about 20 feet from the water’s edge, according to ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“Checking the high tide on my watch I saw that high tide was around 6 p.m.,” Lt. Magness told KUSI-TV.

After about 20 minutes of digging, the girl was freed, appearing to be uninjured. She was then medically evaluated in an ambulance but was released, Lt. Magness told San Diego NBC affiliate KSND-TV.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.