#Chilling image captures trapped boy’s hand reaching out of cave

This is the shocking moment the hand of a 7-year-old boy Chinese boy who was sucked into a cave while swimming in a river popped out of the ground and grabbed by his grandfather, according to a report.

The youngster was feared to have died after being swept underground as he swam in the fast-moving Nanxi River in Yongjia, Wenzhou, last week, the UK’s Sun reported, citing the Chinese Qianjing Evening News.

“The child suddenly disappeared. I was really scared to death at the time,” Lao Ye said.

He and other villagers searched frantically by the river and found an underground cave on the bank with the boy’s hand sticking out as he took refuge in an air pocket that allowed him to breathe.

Firefighters found Lao gripping his grandson’s hand to prevent him being swept away.

They feared that excavating the riverbank above the boy’s head would cause a potentially dangerous cave-in, so they began by carefully breaking apart the soil nearby and then removed several inches of mud and rock.

After about 10 minutes, the boy was freed without suffering any serious harm.

Officials told Qianjiang Evening News that they were unaware that the narrow opening existed. The tunnel has since been sealed to prevent future accidents.

Just 10 days earlier, Yongjia authorities responded to a similar incident in which a 13-year-old girl was sucked into a narrow drainage pipe while swimming in a reservoir.

It took rescuers five hours of painstaking drilling and excavating to reach the teen, but she died during the rescue effort.