Rescuers have so far failed to retrieve a two-year-old boy who fell into a 600-feet borewell in Nadukkatupatti village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirappalli district on Friday night, The New Indian Express reported. So far, three attempts have been made to rescue Sujith Wilson.

During the overnight rescue operation, non-governmental organisations from several places, including Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Namakkal and Madurai, tried to rescue Wilson using indigenous machines. However, they failed to lift him up despite putting a rope around the toddler.

“With high skills and hard work we managed to tie both his hands with ropes,” said Health Minister C Vijayabaskar. “However, the gentle hands and sweaty nature did not help our cause. We lost grip of them three times.”

Vijayabaskar said while Wilson was initially spotted at a depth of 27 feet, he later slipped to almost 70 feet. “Due to the vibration from the extraction of mud from nearby, the boy gradually started going down,” the health minister said. “By wee hours we was around 68 feet [down].”

The minister said the rescue teams had not been able to communicate with the boy since 5 am. Several teams from the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response force and workers from NLC India Limited are on their way to the spot. Apart from Vijayabaskar, ministers Vellamandi N Natarajan, S Valarmathi are also present in Nadukkatupatti.

Vijayabaskar said rescuers were trying to pump in maximum oxygen into the borewell, ANI reported. “We are trying to supply maximum oxygen inside the borewell,” the minister told reporters. “Despite our efforts we are unable to lift him. It’s unfortunate that since morning we can’t hear his voice. More rescue teams are on the way.”

The incident came to light on Friday when the boy’s parents, Britto Arogiyaraj and Kalairani, saw their son was missing, The New Indian Express reported. Local people said the borewell had been dug five years ago.

There have been similar incidents in the past two years. In June, a two-year-old child in Punjab died after being stuck in a bore well for 109 hours. In 2017, a three-year-old girl fell into a bore well in Central Odisha’s Angul district. She was rescued after seven hours.

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