A six year old boy was swallowed by a sinkhole at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park, on the south of Lake Michigan slightly after 4.00 pm local time (slightly after 8.00 pm GMT) on Friday 12 July 2013. Rescue teams from the Michigan City Fire Department took three hours to dig the boy out, by which time he had sunk 3.5 m into the sand. He was airlifted to a hospital in Chicago where he is said to be making good progress.
Rescue teams trying to free the boy on Friday 12 July 2013. ABC7 Chicago.
Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface, as in the case of this sinkhole, they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace.
The approximate location of the Indiana Dunes sinkhole. Google Maps.
See also Car and driver swallowed by Ohio sinkhole, Iowa sinkhole linked to nineteenth century mines, Man swallowed by sinkhole in Shenzhen, South China, Florida man swallowed by sinkhole in home and Massive sinkhole opens up in Assumption Parish, Louisiana.
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