Mother and Daughter Rescued After Sinking Waist-Deep into Quicksand
Mother and Daughter Rescued After Sinking Waist-Deep into Quicksand
Ingrid VasquezFri, March 13, 2026 at 11:47 PM UTC
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Credit: Southend-on-Sea City Council -
A mother and daughter were rescued after getting stuck in waist-deep sand near an Essex theme park
Adventure Island staff and bystanders used ropes to pull them to safety
The local council has fenced off the area and is reviewing safety measures
A woman and her young daughter almost lost their lives after becoming stuck in waist-deep sand on the Essex coast.
Adrian Pikula told the BBC that he was walking with his 6-year-old daughter when he saw the women stuck in the sand on Western Esplanade in Southend-on-Sea on Tuesday afternoon.
Surveillance footage obtained by the outlet shows the young girl walking in the sand before she sinks to the ground. After her mother rushes to her, she sinks nearby, causing both to scream for help.
Because of its proximity to Adventure Island UK theme park, Piula alerted staff who came and helped.
Four men, as well as a truck driver, helped pull the mother and daughter out with a rope, according to The Exponent.
Adventure Island said in a Facebook post viewed by The Exponent that the sand had recently been placed there by the local council as the tide was coming in.
Per The Exponent, the post said that the man who first found the women was a park manager and "immediately alerted members of our workshop team, who quickly brought ropes to secure around them and carefully pull them to safety."
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No injuries were reported, per Metro.
"Drawing on their training and expertise, the team acted quickly and calmly to rescue them, while another member of the workshop team contacted the Coastguard," read the Facebok post, per The Exponent. "Thankfully this happened while our team were still on site at the end of the day, allowing staff to spot the situation and step in when it mattered most.
A Facebook post by the Southend-on-Sea City Council states that it is taking the "Three Shells Lagoon incident extremely seriously."
The council said that fencing and safety signage have been "extended and reinforced so that the whole area is now fenced off while the works in the sand are completed and monitored."
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"In the meantime, our engineers are looking at a range of options for the lagoon," the post continued. "Any options are likely to require planning applications and coastal licensing approvals. Public safety comes first therefore the lagoon will remain closed until we are confident it’s safe to reopen it. We will continue to update residents as this work progresses."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
