London, Aug 9 (IANS): A teenaged girl in Britain had a miraculous escape from death after being buried alive on a beach for 15 minutes as the hole she was digging collapsed.

Paige Anderson, 15, turned blue and had stopped breathing after being trapped under a 5- feet wall of sand for quarter of an hour as paramedics, police, lifeboatmen and coastguards frantically dug her out, Daily Mail reported.

She was playing with her sisters Jade, 19, and Taylor, nine, on the beach at Caister, a settlement near coastal town Great Yarmouth, Norfolk county, when the disaster struck.

She was about to climb out of the hole, they had been digging, when the sides suddenly caved in.

Paige, who survived by breathing a pocket of air under the compacted sand, said: "It just started as a bit of fun... I remember crouching down to go through the tunnel, then it all went black after that."

The girl's father Michael Anderson, 50, feared the worst as the huge rescue operation was launched Friday afternoon.

He said: "She is a brave girl. It's a miracle she's still here. The whole thing has restored my faith in people. I just can't thank them enough."