Three-year-old boy slips to depth of 70 feet into borewell in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirappalli, authorities unable to assess his condition

Tiruchirappalli: Rescue operations continued on Saturday to pull out a three-year-old boy who fell into an abandoned borewell, even as authorities suffered a setback as the child slipped further inside. The child, who fell into the borewell while playing near his house on Friday evening, was initially stuck at a depth of 35 feet but drifted further to over 70 feet with efforts to rescue him commencing last evening. Oxygen is being continuously supplied to the boy who has been trapped since 5.30 pm. According to officials, six teams were involved in the rescue operations. “We could hear the child weeping.. for a long time… but now we cannot hear.But we feel the child is safe and breathing,” the officials said. Authorities said they were not able to assess the boy’s condition because of the layers of wet mud around him. Specialised teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and state Disaster Response Force (SDRF) joined the rescue operations at Nadukattupatti near Tiruchirappalli. State Health and Family Welfare Minister C Vijayabaskar, who has been camping at the site since Friday night, said all efforts were on to rescue the child, adding there was no let-up in the operations. Vijayabaskar said even if the child was unconscious, he could be saved. The operations continued as hundreds of people in the state prayed for the child with political leaders such as DMK president MK Stalin and AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran joining them in wishing that the boy was rescued at the earliest. Efforts to rescue the child included the use of modern equipment, officials added.