A family from Birmingham have thanked people who came to the aid of their son when he became trapped on a beach as the tide came in.

Andrew Booth, 15, who has Asperger syndrome, got his leg trapped in mud as his mother, father, brother and sister went fossil hunting on Charmouth Beach in Dorset on Monday night.

His mother, Janet, said up to five members of the public frantically scrabbled the sand and mud away from her distressed son for 15 minutes as the water continued to rise.

Eventually his leg was freed just as a Coastguard rescue team arrived on the scene.

The family, from Kings Norton, Birmingham, were on holiday and staying near the beach. Mrs Booth said: “We have no idea who these people were but they were fantastic and they dug Andrew out of the mud. It was frightening and Andrew was very distressed.

“We are a Christian family and we believe these people were put there by God to help us.”

Portland Coastguard said Andrew’s father called 999 just before 9pm on Monday and the crew of Lyme Regis RNLI lifeboat and Coastguard rescue officers went to release him.

An RNLI spokesman said: “The boy had sunk up to his knees with the tide coming in when the lifeboat was launched at 9pm.”

A Coastguard spokesman said the family were staying at a camp site and added: “They were walking along the tideline and he got his foot and half leg stuck in the sand and couldn’t get it out.”

He added: “There are parts where it can be a bit more mud than sand. There has been a couple of land slumps rather than land slides down that way so there are parts that can be a bit softer.”

Meanwhile, a teenage holidaymaker who died when a tunnel dug into sand dunes collapsed on top of him was named by police.

Rescuers battled to try to save Craig Owen, 16, of Wrexham, North Wales, when he became trapped under 5ft of sand.

His parents were at the scene as emergency services fought to free him at Cefn Sidan beach, near Burry Port, West Wales.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead after being airlifted to hospital on Sunday night.

Craig was among a group of youngsters who had dug two deep holes connected by a tunnel in the dunes.His friends had uncovered his head from the sand by the time a Coastguard rescue team arrived at about 7pm.

John Jones, station manager at Burry Port Coastguard, said on Monday: “The whole family were around, everyone was shouting.
“The family were shouting at him to help himself, believing that he was conscious and able to help us.”

Working in a confined trench, Mr Jones and his colleagues were able to uncover the teenager’s chest to allow paramedics to give him oxygen within minutes.

It took another 15 to 20 minutes to uncover the rest of his body, by which time “there was no sign of life”.

“There must have been two tonnes of sand on top of him.” Mr Jones said the tunnel was about the length of a car.