A 13-year-old boy has been rescued after getting trapped in a sewer system in Los Angeles for 12 hours.

Jesse Hernandez had been playing in a park when he fell eight metres down a pipe on Sunday.

A large emergency operation got under way, and officers managed to find him after spotting his handprints along a pipe.

Specialised cameras were deployed to help search the sewers.

More than 700 metres of pipe were searched before Jesse was discovered 'alert and talking' after a maintenance hatch was opened.

Officials hailed it as an "unprecedented team effort" by various agencies, including local police, fire fighters and park rangers.

Erik Scott from the Los Angeles Fire Department explained: "The Department of Sanitation handed him a cell phone to call his parents.

"You can just imagine the relief that they had felt from hearing their son's voice."

The fire department added that Jesse received immediate medical care and decontamination after being rescued, before being taken to a local hospital.