Two boys, nine and 12, on holiday with family, die on beach in Denmark after buried by dune landslide while digging a hole in sand

The children, aged nine and 12, were digging a hole on Noerre Vorupoer beach in North Jutland on Sunday (25 August) when the dune collapsed, burying them. Police said health authorities reported that the boys died on Tuesday evening (27 August).

Police added that they considered the incident a '”tragic accident” and had no further comments. Media reports said the boys were on holiday with their families from the Munich area and were trapped under the sand for up to 40 minutes during efforts to dig them out. They were flown by helicopter in critical condition to the university hospital in Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, where they died.

A separate incident also occurred on Sunday which saw another young boy caught in a dune landslide in southwestern Jutland. The boy was pulled out quickly and unharmed.

Following the incidents, Danish authorities urged people to exercise caution around dune areas on the west coast as recent heavy rains had made the dunes unstable.

It comes after seven-year-old girl died on a beach in Florida after being buried by sand. Sloan Mattingly was digging a hole on the beach with her brother Maddox in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, when the hole collapsed. Beachgoers rushed to pull the pair out of the sand, but the youngster later died in hospital.