A day at the beach turned tragic when a 17-year-old boy was killed after a sand tunnel he was digging abruptly collapsed, burying him alive.

The teen, identified as Riccardo Boni by several Italian media outlets, was vacationing in Montalto di Castro, Italy, with his family when the incident occurred on Thursday, July 10.

Boni’s family was staying at a resort in Montalto di Castro, approximately 70 miles north of Rome. The collapse happened around 3:00 p.m. local time while he was on the beach with his father and siblings.

According to local outlet Corriere della Sera, Riccardo Boni and his younger siblings had moved closer to the shoreline, where they began digging a large hole that was reportedly nearly five feet deep, in a more secluded area of the beach. Meanwhile, their father was nearby, dozing off under a beach umbrella. 

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Suddenly, the walls of the tunnel gave way, trapping the teen beneath the sand, the outlet reported. 

The boy remained buried until his father woke up and realized his oldest son was missing. One of his brothers cried out, “Riccardo is under the sand,” according to The Sun. The siblings pointed to the location of the collapsed tunnel, prompting their father and nearby beachgoers to rush over and frantically dig in search of him.

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A view of a beach in Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy on July 27, 2024.  (Photo by Gian Marco Benedetto/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Tragically, the boy was found buried in the sand, unresponsive and showing no signs of life. First responders arrived within minutes, including an air ambulance, working to revive him, but it was too late, and the boy could not be saved, the outlet reported. 

“No-one realized what had happened,” Lieutenant Daniele Tramontana, the Carabiniere officer leading the police investigation, told The Sun.

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Children dig a hole on a beach as people walk by.  (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“They lost a lot of time because they couldn’t see him. When they realized he was missing they began to look for him but it was too late,” he continued. 

A witness on the beach told Corriere della Serra that “no one on the beach had heard the teenager screaming because he was completely buried within minutes.” 

A police investigation has since been opened “against persons unknown” in connection with the fatal accident, the outlet added, as authorities consider whether an autopsy will be required.

“I have spoken to colleagues, and we have never heard of anything like this happening before in Italy,” Tramontana said. “We deal with terrible situations all the time, but we can’t imagine how a game on the beach ended up this way.” 

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com

Published on
12/07/2025 – 7:00 GMT+2

The war in Ukraine is continuing unabated. Just hours after a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last week, Russia fired a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian government, in June alone, Russia sent over 330 missiles, 5,000 combat drones and 5,000 gliding bombs against mostly civilian targets.

Trump seems to be increasingly fed up with Moscow, announcing more arms deliveries to Kyiv only days after pausing weapons shipments. “Ukraine has to defend itself” is Trump’s latest mantra.

The surprise move came after a phone call Trump had with Volodymyr Zelenskyy which the Ukrainian president described as a “fruitful conversation”. For now, the arming of Ukraine seems to be safe. Will this impress Putin?

Can Europe step up and replace US weapons in case Trump changes his mind again?

So, serious questions for this week’s panel: Tinatin Akhvlediani, research fellow in the EU Foreign Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Ania Skrzypek, research director at the Foundation for European Progressive Studies and Michelle Haas, researcher at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies and an associate fellow at the Egmont Institute.

Second topic: At their first bilateral summit, EU candidate Moldova pushed Brussels for accelerated accession. Because of repeated hybrid attacks from Russia, Moldova wants to join the 27 as soon as possible and is now eager to align with EU standards as grounds for decoupling its enlargement track from Ukraine’s.

For now, Brussels appears unwilling to do that. But if Moldova can continue to demonstrate tangible reform, economic resilience, can the case for accelerated accession be ignored? Is the EU sending the right signal to countries threatened by Russia?

And finally, the panel discussed the role of women in the military.

All across Europe, conscription debates are heating up — and this time, women are part of the equation. Faced with rising security threats and stretched military resources, several countries are reconsidering long-held traditions.

The idea of drafting women is gaining traction. On the first day of its EU presidency, Denmark just did it as the last Scandinavian country.

But expanding conscription also raises big questions about defence budgets — can Europe afford a larger, more inclusive force, or will it strain already tight military spending? Should financial considerations even play a role here?

Is a mandatory female contribution to the military the ultimate achievement of gender equality? What about the argument, joining the military should be a personal choice?