A three-year-old girl who fell into a 250-foot-deep abandoned borewell in Faridabad’s Sihi died after being pulled out following a nearly 10-hour rescue operation, police and rescue officials said on Monday.
Rescuers later spotted the child’s feet and improvised O-rings using metal rods and rappelling ropes to secure them. An L-hook was also used to support her head. Officials resealed it with concrete.
The child fell into the 12-inch-wide borewell around 6pm on Sunday while playing on a tractor with other children. She was found stuck upside down at a depth of about 170 feet. Police, fire department personnel, Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) officials and the State Disaster Response Force began rescue operations before an NDRF team arrived around 9.05pm. NDRF deputy commandant Kunal Tiwari said a camera lowered into the borewell showed muddy water at 120 feet. She was pulled out around 3.50am and rushed to a private hospital, where she was declared dead. MCF executive engineer Sanjeev Kumar said the borewell was at least 15 years old and had been sealed after an overhead water tank was demolished, but it was unclear when or by whom the seal was removed.
Officials said oxygen was supplied continuously into the borewell. Police said an autopsy report is awaited.
