A man trapped for hours in a hole in a Perth backyard has opened up on the heart-stopping moment he realised he was in trouble.
The 46-year-old said he had been trying to help a friend find a sewer pipe when he fell into the 3m-deep trench at his Hillarys rental about 3pm on Tuesday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Man reveals terror of being trapped in Hillarys hole.
One of his legs was stuck in a twisted position and sand began cascading in on him, leaving him unable to get out.
“I tried to dig again but I couldn’t. I realised I was stuck and more sand (was) falling in,” he told 7NEWS in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
“That’s when (I) freaked out and called emergency straight away.”
Terrified, in significant pain and without an exit option, a mammoth rescue effort was soon underway at the Orbell Rd home.
It took specialist crews about three hours to carefully extract him.
Rescuers took no risks amid fears the hole, which housemates said had been dug out over four days, could collapse completely.
At one point, a paramedic carefully got into the hole to administer painkillers.
“The thing is, whenever anyone moved … the sand was falling more, so they couldn’t really make much movement,” the man said.
“It was scary. I was really scared.”
The man did not realise how many people were involved in the rescue effort until he was finally removed from danger.
He thanked emergency services and even joked that, without them, he might still be stuck.
He was taken to hospital as a precaution and has been discharged.