NAGAPATTINAM: A two-year-old girl was rescued from a borewell pit after being stuck for nearly three hours in Nagapattinam district on Sunday. Sivadarshini, daughter of farmer Karthikeyan and Mala, accidentally fell into an under construction 15-feet-deep borewell pit while playing near the backyard of her house in Puthupalli village in Keezhaiyur block on Sunday afternoon.
Sources said her parents heard her faint cries and rushed to check on her at 1.30pm. It is not known how long she had been stuck. They tried to pull the child out but in vain. Fire and Rescue Services in Velankanni and Thalaignayiru were informed of the incident at 2.45 pm and a team of 15 men from rescue services rushed to the spot.
The team led by District Fire Officer P Sathyakeerthi decided to widen the bore which had a diameter of a foot. Operations began at 3.15pm with oxygen provided to the child. The bore was widened with backhoe loaders. As the pit got wider, R Raja, S Udhayachandran and V Srinivasan got in and started digging with their hands.
They were able to retrieve the child, covered in mud and sobbing, at 4pm. She was given first aid and shifted to a hospital. Probe revealed the borewell was on the land of Karthikeyan’s neighbour. As there was no fence between plots the child has wandered across and fallen through a board covering the pit.