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FDNY, NYPD Combine Efforts To Rescue Man Who Fell Down Deep Hole Along The Whitestone Expressway

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There was a wild rescue on Sunday in Queens, after a man fell down a hole 30 feet deep.

The FDNY and NYPD said they got a call around 8 a.m. about a 47-year-old man trapped in a storm drain, along the Whitestone Expressway.

For 20 minutes, firefighters and police officers worked together to get him out.

Hole rescue
(Photo: NYPD)

Authorities said one firefighter used a ladder to go down in the hole and then used a basket to hoist the victim above ground.

"He had been there in that hole for a long time, so we wanted to move as fast as possible because he was in water. We were worried about hypothermia," The FDNY's Krist Kabashi said.

"As we got down there, he was conscious, he was talking to us, just expressed pain in his ankle region," the NYPD's Kenneth Logallo said.

Police called it an extraordinary rescue.

The victim is expected to be OK. It's still unclear how he ended up in the hole.

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