man and his wife died Saturday night after falling into a pit that she and her friends dug as a birthday surprise for the husband along the seashore in Ishikawa Prefecture, police said Sunday.Hiroki Demura, 23, and his wife Risa, 23, accidentally fell into the pit -- some 2.4 meters in width and 2.5 meters in depth -- on the beach in Kahoku on the Sea of Japan coast, police said.Although rescuers, alerted by a phone call at around 10:45 p.m., rushed to the scene, dug up the couple and brought them to a hospital, the couple died of suffocation from being buried with sand, police said.
Risa and her friends began shoveling the pit around noon Saturday. After returning home, Risa brought her husband back to the pit and the couple fell into it together, the police said, adding the pit's opening was covered with a blue tarp.