First-responders rescued a man Thursday who fell into a tunnel of some sort on Point Loma, only to find himself trapped.
Initially, San Diego Fire-Rescue wasn't sure, exactly, where the man was.
"Someone called us saying they're stuck in some type of a vertical tunnel," an SDFD spokeswoman told NBC 7 around 2:45 p.m. "We have a general vicinity but we don't know where the patient is yet."
The searchers on the ground fanned out in the area around near Dana Middle School. Flying overhead, NBC 7's helicopter SkyRanger spotted several crews of first-responders, with at least half a dozen SDFD vehicles on scene, as well as multiple police cars.
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Around 3:50 p.m., several firefighters were spotted carrying gear up a hill in heavy brush along Nimitz Boulevard, a ladder nearby.
Not much later, a man suddenly appeared and was able to leave the immediate scene under his own power. It's not clear what the man was doing so far from the street or how he came to fall down the hole.
Firefighters remained on scene for a while, presumably to cover up the hole in an effort to prevent a repeat of the incident.