A woman taking a toilet break during a road trip in the Australian outback became trapped waist-deep in a pit latrine after it collapsed, authorities in the Northern Territory said.

She was stuck in the sewage pit for approximately three hours until rescued by a local tradesman who happened to be passing by.

The woman was traveling with her husband and two children from Darwin to Canberra after visiting relatives. The incident occurred at the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Zone, about 145 km southwest of the remote town of Alice Springs.

An eyewitness told local media that the woman's husband flagged down the tradesman, who lowered a rope into the pit for the woman to hold onto and then used his car to pull her out. The process took over 45 minutes.

The woman was taken to hospital but did not suffer serious injuries. NT WorkSafe, the territory's workplace health and safety regulator, said it had been notified and an investigation is ongoing.

This is not the first such accident in Australia. In July 2024, firefighters had to dismantle a pit toilet in Victoria to rescue a trapped man. In 2012, a 65-year-old woman fractured her leg after falling into a pit toilet in central Queensland.

Pit latrines have also caused fatalities elsewhere. In 2014, a five-year-old student in South Africa died after a pit toilet collapsed, and another death occurred in 2018. Following these incidents, the South African government pledged to eliminate pit latrines from schools.

Source: www.bbc.com