A 10-year-old boy who was playing on a beach sand dune with friends has died after he crawled in a hole he dug only for it to collapse on top of him, burying him alive.

Arthur Correa Nunes, 10, was playing with friends in the dunes near Praia da Galheta Beach in the Brazilian municipality of Laguna when he climbed inside a hole in the side of a sand dune last Sunday (29th August).

The news site Ndmais said Arthur was dragged out of the hole by a passerby after his friends sounded the alarm.

The boy was already unconscious when the emergency services arrived. Paramedics spent over an hour trying to resuscitate the youngster, but he died at the scene.

Aziz Tebechrani Neto, professor of soil mechanics at the University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina, told Ndmais about the dangers sand dunes pose, especially for children.

He said: “From the moment there is destabilisation, such as a hole, in the dunes they tend to re-shape themselves and this often happens via collapse.”

Aziz said that what happened in the dune is similar to a landslide except in sand dunes the probability of something like this happening is far higher because of the lack of cohesion between the grains of sand.

He added: “Even if a hole in the dune appears safe and stands strong for some time, it isn’t, because a simple gust of wind can bring it crashing down.”

Local media said a wake was held for the 10-year-old boy and he was later cremated.