It was a Black Sunday for the family of Thamizharasan, a two-and-a-half-year-old child who fell to a depth of 18 feet in a 350-foot-deep abandoned borewell in Koorambadi, in Arcot taluk, about 33 km from Vellore.
The accident happened even as his mother Geetha and uncle Madhavan were watching him play.
After an 8-hour rescue effort, the child died in the Government District Headquarters Hospital in Walajapet at 6.30 p.m. The child reportedly died of respiratory distress. The body has been sent for a post-mortem.
Fire and Rescue Services personnel dug a parallel hole and then a horizontal passage with a drilling machine and seven earthmovers to reach the trapped boy. All through the exercise, oxygen was supplied to the boy through a tube, with the assistance of a 108 Ambulance Service under the supervision of the Health Department. NDRF team from Arakkonam joined in the rescue efforts. At about 5. 20 p.m., the child was lifted out of the pit and rushed to the hospital, but it was too late.
