Man digs 6-feet hole on beach for his sick 4-year-old son

The act alerted the police.

A father who spent over an hour to dig a 6-feet hole on a beach in England for his sick 4-year-old son was ordered by beach safety officers to fill it in.

Nathan Crossley, 43, dug up a pit on Saturday as he just wanted to take a picture of his son, Mason, inside it. However, someone informed beach safety officers that an industrial hole was being dug on the beach in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, according to Daily Mail report.

"The man's young son had been in hospital and he had promised him he would do it for his bucket list," a manager for beach safety said.

Mason's mother Miranda Cottingham said, "Our son Mason is a type 1 diabetic and he had to be put to sleep to have a few teeth taken out. It was a massive ordeal for him, he's only just turned four and all he wanted to do was dig a big hole on the beach."

A visitor to the beach told Grimsby Live that the father was asked to fill in the hole as the beach is cleaned every morning by a tractor which could topple over. "There was a child who died on a beach down south when the walls of the hole collapsed on them. It is a dangerous thing to do. We watched the dad digging it out for about an hour," an eyewitness said.

Cottingham added, "We do see the funny side to the story but Nathan's very sensible and he knew what he was doing. We knew the tide times so he knew nobody was at risk. We were just a happy little family making memories.

• Europe