A rescue operation is underway to save a girl who is stuck 150ft down a well. Three-year-old Chetna plunged 150ft down a 700ft well on Monday (December 23) and rescue operators have been working round the clock since then to get her out. The young girl spent more than 90 hours without food or water and is said to be very weak and unable to move in the well located in the Indian village of Kotputli in Rajasthan.
The youngster has been trapped underground for five days while emergency services have raced against the clock to get Chetna out. They are monitoring her with a video camera and are supplying her with oxygen through a pipe. Manual excavations have been carried out the last three days in an attempt to free the three-year-old, with a series of different techniques trialled, according to local press. None have been successful so far. District Collector Kalpana Aggarwal says the team has resorted to digging pits and then digging horizontally from below to reach Chetna.
A pile-driving machine has since been brought to the site to dig the tunnel, with a 100-tonne crane also dispatched to the trapping as a way of speeding up the digging process. Distressing footage has since shown the excavator at work, digging up a tunnel while emergency workers wait alongside.
But rainfall has hindered the rescue operation as rescue teams find themselves prevented from descending into the well to reach Chetna. Waterproof tents are being set up so that the well is safely covered while a first aid team is on standby next to the borehole to treat Chetna if she is rescued.
