Published on: 04/15/2022IST

Sijo K Jose Last updated on: 19/4/2022, Permalink

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It took hours to pull the Land Cruiser out of the water.

Folks at the Las Piletas beach in Spanish town Sanlúcar de Barrameda recently got a surprise when they watched the tide swallow a Toyota Land Cruiser that belonged to the country's national police. Multiple people took photos and videos of the weird event.

A tractor was among the first rescue vehicles to arrive on the scene. However, it was unable to pull the Land Cruiser to dry land. The tractor is visible in the video above, and a pickup also arrives at the scene.

The tide eventually was high enough to leave only the roof sticking out of the water. The images below show the progression from the Land Cruiser just being up to the wheel hubs in the mud to being flooded by the tide.

Several other rescue vehicles also came to the scene. Firetrucks, a boat belonging to the civil protection service, professional divers, and even a barge arrived on the scene. They weren't able to pull the Land Cruiser out of the water until 7:30 PM local time when the tide was falling, according to Aionsur.

There were no reported injuries. One of the officers even stayed behind the wheel with the driver window down while the Land Cruiser was partially submerged to help with the rescue attempts.

There's no info about the state of the Land Cruiser after the rescue. Being submerged in water is generally bad for any vehicle. The saltwater like in this case can be even worse by being more likely to cause corrosion to electronic components.

Toyota launched a new generation of the Land Cruiser last year. It adopts a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 to replace the previous 5.7-liter V8. The new mill makes 409 horsepower (305 kilowatts) and 479 pound-feet (650 Newton-meters) of torque. The power runs through a 10-speed automatic gearbox to a four-wheel-drive system with three differential locks available.

The new Land Cruiser should be a strong off-roader. It has up to 9.05 inches (230 millimeters) of ground clearance and an adaptive suspension. There's an updated Crawl Control system for one-pedal motoring. It even has an underbody camera.