Rescuers fight to save child from hole in India

Village and army personnel use a bull-dozer during a rescue operation for six year old boy, Prince, trapped at the bottom of a 60 foot (18.2 metre) deep hole in a village in the district of Kurushetra in the northern state of Haryana yesterday. Prince, who has only one name, accidentally fell into the well - one foot (0.3 metres) in diameter - while playing near his house on July 21. PHOTO: AFP

Troops and police were digging a tunnel on Sunday to rescue the boy and had spread plastic sheets to keep rainwater from entering the hole, officials said.

The boy was playing on Friday evening near a spot where a tubewell was being dug when he slipped and fell in, in Kurukshetra town in Haryana, police inspector Vir Singh said by telephone.

"We are pumping in oxygen and also feeding the child milk and chocolates," he said. A closed-circuit camera had been lowered to monitor the child.

"The tunnel has reached within three-four feet of where the boy is and we're confident we will rescue him," he added.

Local television channels gave wide coverage of the incident, showing pictures of the bare-chested child, looking dazed and covered in mud, sitting at the bottom of the hole.