A 17-YEAR-old boy has died on a beach after being buried alive in a hole in the sand.

The teenager is believed to have suffocated to death in a hole he had dug on the beach after the sand collapsed on him.

Emergency services were called to reports of the lifeless teenager on Montalto di Castro beach, in north west Italy yesterday.

Ricardo B., from Rome, was found buried alive, after he had “built a tunnel” on the beach.

A local swimmer present during the event shared with the media: “He had constructed a tunnel intending to go in on one side and emerge from the other side.”

“But as he passed through, when he reached the center, everything collapsed and the hole was completely covered.

“You couldn’t see anything anymore; you could have walked right through it and not noticed a thing.”

Another local added that there were no screams or sounds as the boy was buried “in a matter of moments”.

He said: “When the sand closes in on you, it’s incredibly heavy.

“There is barely any oxygen flow, and rescuing individuals is challenging since it often falls apart. Within minutes, suffocation tragically takes their lives.”

The teenager, aged 17, was on the beach with his family when he created the one-and-a-half-meter deep tunnel near a campsite in California, adjacent to the Tarquinia area.

He had initially been with his two younger siblings, aged 3 and 8, who then wandered off while their dad was taking a nap.

An urgent hunt for the teenager was launched at around 3pm when the family discovered he was missing.

The dad, swimmers and lifeguards furiously began digging while they waited for emergency services to arrive.

Police and an air ambulance were called to help pull the boy from the sand.

But despite paramedics best efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“A tragedy that has left us all shocked,” Montalto Mayor Emanuela Socciarelli told ANSA.

“It’s unthinkable that a young man could lose his life in this way. I want to offer my sincere condolences to this family, to whom we are all truly deeply connected.”