A TERRIFIED Sidmouth schoolboy was dragged to safety from waist-deep mud when a day of fossiling fun ended in rescue drama.

A TERRIFIED Sidmouth schoolboy was dragged to safety from waist-deep mud when a day of fossiling fun ended in rescue drama.

A family outing to Charmouth beach took a horror turn when ten-year-old Callum Currie suddenly sank into soft ground while walking below cliffs in the area of a recent landslide.

His mum, Amanda Currie, 43, watched on anxiously as a team of eight coastguards battled for half an hour to pull the youngster free.

Shocked onlookers feared the child was going to sink further as rescuers raced to the scene.

One witness, who didn’t want to be named, said: “A woman ran up to the mum and said ‘your son is up to his waist in mud.’ She went running back.”

A beach-goer raced to a nearby caf� to raise the alarm.

Coastguards used a harness, body-stretchers, water and air to pull Callum from the mud.

The youngster, his mum and her partner had been looking for fossils.

Paramedics, police and firefighters all attended. Callum was said to be uninjured.

“He was caked in mud and cold when he came out and seemed a bit shaken,” added the witness.

Signs in the area of the landslip warned “Danger Keep Off”.