Rescue operation on to pull out two-yr-old from borewell in Punjab

Massive rescue operation was underway Friday to safely pull out a two-year-old boy who fell into an over 150-foot-deep borewell in a field near his house in Punjab's Sangrur district, officials said.

Fatehvir Singh fell into the unused borewell while he was playing near his house at around 4 pm Thursday, district administration officials said earlier.

On Friday, rescuers comprising Army experts, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team, who were assisted by police and civil authorities, were involved in digging a parallel bore to reach the child, a police official present at the spot, said.

The borewell was covered with a cloth and the boy accidentally stepped on it while playing. His mother tried to rescue him, but failed. Oxygen is being supplied to the child who appears to be stuck 125-foot-deep into the borewell, the officials said.

Heavy earthmoving machines and tractors have also been pressed into service for digging and to bring out the boy safely.

The incident has again brought to the 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.