This is the dramatic moment a ten-year-old boy was saved from quicksand-like mud.
Callum Currie had sunk to his waist when rescuers managed to throw him a lifeline.
A team of eight coastguards worked for 30 minutes to rescue the schoolboy, who had been walking below cliffs near a recent landslide at Charmouth Beach in Dorset.
Sinking: 10-year-old Callum Currie was up to his waist in mud at Charmouth Beach in Dorset
Callum’s mother, Amanda Currie, from Sidmouth, Devon, said he had been looking for fossils when he became stuck.
She said: ‘My worst fear was that he was going to sink further. I was thinking “just how deep is it”.’
Coastguards used specialist equipment to reach Callum and rescue him. Mrs Currie, 43, said: ‘They used body stretchers.
‘They dragged him along for a bit and were able to pull him free.’
Callum was recovering well after the drama, she added.
Help arrives: Coastguards using specialist equipment eventually pulled Callum free after half an hour
Warnings: Signs were recently put up around the beach telling people to keep away from the landslip
‘He’s absolutely fine and he handled it all really well. There was a brief moment when he panicked but he remained calm despite being in the mud for an hour.
‘He was caked in mud and very cold when he came out and a bit shaken, but I was amazed that he was so resilient.’
Mrs Currie said of Callum’s rescuers: ‘They were brilliant and they were all so sweet and made sure he was all right and that I was.’
Signs were placed at the beach in April last year, warning about mudflows after several people became trapped. But Mrs Currie added: ‘There aren’t enough warning signs. There were two signs missing that had been there before.
‘I asked the coastguard why there isn’t a sign at the beginning of the beach warning people about thick mud. If it had been a smaller child in there, it could have gone up to their neck.’
Three weeks ago, 150,000 tons of soil fell from the cliffs near Charmouth, in the heart of Britain’s World Heritage Jurassic Coast.
The area is popular with fossil hunters after landslides, because they often unearth ancient finds.
