Emergency crews came to the rescue of seven suspected border-crossers who got stuck Tuesday in an underground runoff culvert that crosses the U.S.-Mexico line in the Otay Mesa area, authorities reported.
A surveillance camera alerted the U.S. Border Patrol to the group's apparent attempt to sneak into the U.S. in the 10000 block of Via de la Amistad about 7 a.m., officials said.
The federal agency alerted the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, which sent out crews equipped with a jackhammer and other extrication tools, SDFRD public information officer Maurice Luque said.
The personnel found a man stuck at the hips in a roughly 2-by-2-foot concrete opening to the drain, which surfaces about 100 feet north of the international line.
"He couldn't get out of the hole," Luque said.
Firefighters chipped away enough of the aperture to get the suspected undocumented immigrant out, then helped two other men and two women back onto solid ground.
The rescue took about 90 minutes, during which emergency personnel monitored the air in the tunnel to make sure the trapped people weren't running low on oxygen.
No one in the group was injured, though one of the women reported feeling unwell and was taken to a Chula Vista hospital for a precautionary evaluation, Luque said.
All seven were taken into custody by the Border Patrol.
Seven others who had entered the culvert with them turned around at some point during the incident and fled back into Mexico, Luque said.
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