A three-year-old girl has died after being buried alive in a collapsed sandpit on a Hayle beach on Sunday afternoon.

The toddler became trapped with her elder brother after a 5ft deep hole they had dug at Upton Towans beach, near the Beachside Holiday Park at Phillack, collapsed on top of them.

Falmouth Coastguard, police, fire crews from Camborne and Falmouth, the air ambulance and an air sea rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose were all scrambled after a the frantic parents of the children involved were unable to free them. Lifeguards from the area were also at the scene.