Efforts to rescue a 7-year-old boy who fell into a borewell in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha district are continuing for the second day with rescuers digging a parallel pit and trying to connect the two with a tunnel, said state home minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday.

The boy slipped into the 60-foot-deep borewell around 11 am on Tuesday and got stuck at a depth of 43 feet, officials said.

A parallel pit was dug up to a depth of 51 feet and rescue personnel are digging a tunnel to connect it with the borewell shaft, minister Mishra said.

The rescue operation is likely to be completed in the next two hours, he said. The rescuers are facing difficulties as the ground they are working on is hard and rocky, Mishra told reporters in Bhopal.

Vidisha Collector Umashankar Bhargava said the rescue team noticed the child’s movements. He will be rescued safely soon, said the official.

The boy, Lokesh Ahirwar, was playing when he slipped into the borewell at Kherkhedi Pathar village under Lateri tehsil in the district.

After being alerted by the villagers, a rescue team reached the spot and began an operation to safely extricate him, said Lateri sub-divisional magistrate Harshal Choudhary.

An oxygen pipe has been lowered into the borewell and rescuers are keeping an eye on the trapped boy through a night-vision device, said Collector Bhargava.

Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been pressed into service, said the official.

Senior officials, including divisional commissioner Malsingh Bhaydiya and inspector general (IG) Irshad Wali, reached the spot around on Tuesday evening to supervise the rescue operation.

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