Police name beach death toddler

Abbie was on holiday with her family

A three-year-old girl who was smothered with sand while digging a hole with her brother on the beach has been named.

Abbie Livingstone-Nurse, from Goring Road in Worthing, West Sussex, died when the 5ft-deep hole collapsed at Towans Beach near Hayle in Cornwall.

Lifeguards, coastguards and firefighters tried to rescue the child for 30 minutes on Sunday.

Her older brother was pulled from the hole but Abbie was pronounced dead at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

The children were on holiday with their mother and her partner, staying at Beachside Holiday Park in Hayle.

She was a lovely little girl - I am so upset Alfred Tester, neighbour

On Monday, the couple laid flowers at the spot where Abbie was killed.

They described her as "a happy little girl" who was "completely fearless".

The family have thanked those involved in the rescue attempt.

Neighbour Alfred Tester said: "She was a lovely little girl. I have known her since she was a baby. I am so upset."

The dead girl's family arrived home in Sussex on Monday night with a police escort.

The three-year-old's grandfather Peter Sturton said Mrs Livingston-Nurse, Abbie's mother, was "absolutely distraught".

A Sussex police spokesman at the scene said that the family was "totally devastated", and was being supported by friends and a family liaison officer from Devon and Cornwall police.