Punjab: rescue ops continue to save boy from borewell

Large-scale rescue operations continued on Saturday to pull out the two-year-old boy who fell into an over 150-feet-deep borewell near his house in Punjab's Sangrur district almost 48 hours ago.

Fatehvir Singh, who would turn three next week, fell into the unused borewell in a field while he was playing near his house at around 4.00 pm on Thursday, officials said.

The borewell was covered with a cloth and the boy accidentally stepped on it. His mother tried to rescue him but failed.

A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Army experts, assisted by the police, civil authorities, villagers and volunteers, were carrying out the rescue operations.

The toddler is stuck around 110 feet deep in the borewell which is seven inches wide.

Officials said a parallel shaft of 36 inches in diameter was being installed to bring out the child safely. So far, rescuers have dug about 90 feet by taking out soil manually, officials said.

Earlier, a team of NDRF had tried to pull out the child with the help of rope but could not succeed.

Oxygen was being supplied to the child and authorities are monitoring his condition through camera, officials added.

The child made some movement at 5.00 am on Saturday, authorities said.

Fatehvir's family members and villagers were offering prayers for his safety.

The incident has again brought to fore the dangers posed by uncovered borewells, which have turned into death traps for children.

In March, an 18-month-old boy was rescued from a borewell in Haryana's Hisar district, two days after he had fallen into it.

In 2006, a massive operation was launched to rescue five-year-old Prince, who had fallen into a borewell in a village in Kurukshetra. He was pulled out safely nearly 48 hours later.