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Boy Pulled From 11 Feet of Sand After Dune Collapse

Dune along Lake Michigan collapsed
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 13, 2013 10:26 AM CDT

A 8-year-old boy is in the hospital after being buried beneath 11 feet of sand for three-plus hours yesterday, reports CBS. The northern Indiana child was playing on dunes at a park along the shore of Lake Michigan, when one apparently collapsed, covering him even as his family scrambled to pull him out. His family called 911; emergency responders were on the scene within 15 minutes, but it took heavy equipment and many rescuers digging by hand in the unstable sand before the top of the boy's head was found. A fire chief now tells the AP that an air pocket saved the boy. He has been taken to a Chicago-area hospital, but his condition is unknown. "I have never heard of anything like this here or at other sand dune parks," a park ranger tells the AP. "I've never heard of anything like this on a sand dune." (More sand stories.)

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