Terrifying Rescue
Buried Alive: The Dramatic Race to Save a Teen Trapped in Jerusalem Quicksand | WATCH
Emergency crews in Jerusalem were forced to use specialized heavy equipment and wooden planks to extract a 14 year old boy who was being pulled under by thick, quicksand like mud.
A routine afternoon turned into a desperate struggle for survival in eastern Jerusalem when a young teenager became hopelessly trapped in a patch of treacherous, quicksand like mud. The incident, which occurred in the Ras Khamis neighborhood, triggered an immediate and complex response from local emergency services as the ground threatened to swallow the boy whole. Witnesses described a scene of rising panic as the 14 year old found himself unable to move, with the dense sludge pulling him deeper with every attempt to struggle free. This rare geographical hazard transformed a local lot into a dangerous trap, requiring the intervention of highly trained specialists to prevent a tragic outcome.
The emergency unfolded around 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, when an urgent distress call was logged at the Israel Fire and Rescue Services 102 emergency call center for the Jerusalem District. A specialized rescue team from the Egoz station was immediately dispatched to the coordinates in Ras Khamis. Upon their arrival, firefighters identified the boy submerged up to his knees in a particularly thick and heavy mire. The suction created by the mud made it impossible for the boy to lift his legs, and the lack of stable ground around him meant that any traditional approach by the rescuers could cause them to sink as well.
To manage the life threatening situation, the rescue team implemented a precise strategy to distribute weight across the unstable surface. "The firefighters acted with great caution, using dedicated rescue equipment and deploying wooden planks to create a stable treading surface," a spokesperson for the rescue services stated. These planks allowed the team to reach the boy without becoming victims themselves. Throughout the tense extraction, the team focused on maintaining the boy's stability to ensure he did not sink further into the suffocating mud.
After a period of intense physical labor and technical maneuvering, the crews successfully broke the vacuum of the mud and pulled the teenager to safety. Following the extraction, the boy was found to have sustained only minor injuries, though he was visibly shaken by the ordeal. He was immediately handed over to medical personnel at the scene for a full evaluation and treatment. While the boy is expected to make a full recovery, the event serves as a stark warning about the hidden dangers of unstable terrain in urban construction areas and the critical importance of the rapid response provided by the Jerusalem fire units.