An 80-year-old man who went to retrieve the morning papers on his lawn sank into a 2.5-metre-deep hole on New York's Long Island.

Michael Ciron's screams on Sunday morning soon woke up his daughter, who summoned police and firefighters to the Oceanside home.

According to Newsday, by the time rescuers arrived, Ciron managed to pull himself up so that his head cleared above ground.

The fire department secured webbing around his torso and then pulled him out.

Ciron speculated that the sinkhole may have been the site of an old well or cesspool that opened up after Saturday's wet, snowy weather.

Ciron joked that throughout the ordeal, "I held on to the papers."