2-year-old falls into borewell in TN; rescue ops on

Even after about 15 hours of rescue operations, but rescue officials say not much success has been achieved so far.

Massive rescue efforts were underway on Saturday to pull out a two-year-old child, Sujith, trapped at 70 feet from a nearly 600-feet borewell in which he fell accidentally near Tiruchirappalli in Central Tamil Nadu. The rescue operations that began on Friday evening was continuing non-stop with rescuers from fire brigade and other agencies taking every possible effort to save the child by pulling him out of the borewell.

The government machinery swung into action immediately with two ministers - C Vijayabhaskar and Vellamandi M Natarajan - overseeing the rescue operations from the ground zero, in a village near Manapaarai, even as a team from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) rushed to Tiruchirappalli to join the rescuers.

The child is trapped at 70 feet in the nearly 600-feet borewell and efforts to pull him out haven’t met with success so far. An exclusive equipment designed to rescue children from borewells designed by a Madurai-based engineer is being used, but rescue officials say not much success has been achieved so far.

The child was lifted and brought back to about 20 feet in the morning, but he fell again into the borewell and is currently trapped at 70 feet. The distraught mother of the two-year-old child displayed extraordinary grit and determination as she continued to speak to him through a loudspeaker, asking him to be strong.

At about 11.30 am, the mother began stitching a bag that will be used later in the day to pull out her child from the borewell. The scenes at the ground zero were reminiscent of a movie ‘Aramm’ which revolves around the struggle involved in rescuing a child that falls into a borewell, despite the scientific and technological advancements in the world.

Oxygen was being given to the child from the spot through a cylinder, but it was becoming difficult since morning as the child seems to have fallen upside down in the borewell. “It is becoming difficult to reach oxygen to the child since morning. But every effort is being taken to ensure that the child is pulled out of the borewell alive. We have deployed every possible resource that is available before us,” Vijayabhaskar, the Health Minister, said.

The rescue site is crowded with people from near-by villages and heart rendering scenes were witnessed as a group of people held prayers for the safe return of Sujith. Social media was also abuzz with prayers for Sujith using the hashtag #SaveSujith that has been trending since Friday night.

Opposition Leader M K Stalin too tweeted on the issue, asking the government to ensure the well-being of the child.

(With inputs from PTI)