A five-year-old girl in Haryana’s Karnal district died on Monday, a day after she fell into a 50-foot-deep open borewell in Harsinghpura village. Following a 10-hour-long rescue effort, the National Disaster Response Force pulled out the child, who was taken to Karnal’s civil hospital, Hindustan Times reported.

The girl, who had fallen into the borewell on Sunday afternoon, was declared brought dead by doctors. According to the child’s family, she fell in while playing outside her home. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar identified the girl as Shivani.

After the district administration and the police were informed, rescue operations were initiated and the NDRF was brought in to help. Oxygen was supplied inside the borewell and rescuers monitored the child through a camera.

An audio recording of her parents’ voice was played to provide a sense of security to her, police officials told News18.

Meanwhile, Gharaunda MLA Harvinder Kalyan blamed the family for leaving the borewell open. “The NDRF team did a good job by rescuing the girl within few hours,” he told the Hindustan Times. “But this also exposed the negligence on the part of family members as they left the borewell open outside their house.”

Khattar offered his condolences on the girl’s demise. “Deeply saddened to know that 5-year-old Shivani, who had fallen into a borewell in Gharaunda, has passed away,” he said. “Though she was rescued by NDRF and district teams and rushed to the hospital, she is very unfortunately no longer with us.”

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