2-year-old Punjab boy, stuck for 110 hours in borewell, dies after being pulled out

india

Updated: May 22, 2020 22:54 IST

A two-year-old child, who had fallen into a 150-foot-deep unused borewell in Punjab’s Sangrur, has been declared dead. He was pulled out of the borewell on Tuesday morning after a rescue operation of over 110 hours.

Fatehvir Singh was rushed to PGI Chandigarh where doctors declared him dead.

The child was rescued around 5:30 am by National Disaster Response Force personnel. “Fatehvir has been pulled out of the borewell and he is being taken to hospital in an ambulance,” Sagrur Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said.

A team of doctors had been stationed at the site of the accident to provide medical assistance along with an ambulance equipped with a ventilator..

The toddler was stuck in the seven-inch wide borewell at a depth of 125 feet. The only child of his parents who had turned two on Monday, he fell into the borewell in a field when he was playing in Bhagwanpura village around 4 pm on Thursday.

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

A massive rescue operation was launched to bring the child safely out of the borewell. Officials managed to supply oxygen but no food or water could be provided to him. A parallel borewell of 36 inches in diameter was dug to rescue the child.

On Monday, there was anger among people against the district administration and the state government over the delay in rescuing Fatehvir.

A large number of people had assembled around the accident site and several of them raised slogans against the government. Villagers had also held protest and blocked the Sunam-Mansa road.

(with inputs from PTI)