This is the moment a 36-year-old man is discovered after spending three days trapped in quicksand.

The man, named as Santos N., was found in a swampy area in the neighbourhood of El Sol in the municipality of Nezahualcoyotl in the Mexican state of Mexico.

A passerby spotted the man after he had been trapped in the ground for three days and alerted the local authorities.

News site La Silla Rota reported that he had stepped into a puddle of water under which there was waterlogged sand, which swallowed him, and every time he struggled, he sank even further.

Quicksand is loose, wet sand and mud that sucks in anything that rests on it, and where struggling only results in the trapped person or animal sinking even further.

When the rescue team arrived at the scene, they found the man with just his head visible and the rest of his body submerged in the quicksand.

They asked him to crawl towards them so they could try to drag him to safety, but he informed them that every time he tried to move, he seemed to sink even further.

During the rescue, firefighter Fermin Serrano Tina secured himself with rope and waded into the quicksand to extract the man with the help of colleagues on solid ground.

Together, the rescue team managed to pull the victim out of the quicksand and to safety.

Santos N. was then taken to the Gustavo Baz Prada Hospital to be treated for hypothermia, dehydration and malnutrition.

The local authorities said it was the first time such an incident had taken place in the area, adding that the man had been trapped for three days about 200 metres (656 feet) from the nearest homes in El Sol.