02/01/2023 12:04 (act. 02/01/2023 12:10)
Rescuers try to loosen the soil around the well ©APA/AFP
Terrible accident in Vietnam: a ten-year-old boy fell into a concrete pipe 35 meters deep and was trapped in it for two days. According to Vietnamese media reports, the accident happened on Saturday at a construction site in the southern province of Dong Thap. Despite extensive rescue work, it was not possible to rescue the child from her cramped confinement on Monday morning (local time), the Vietnamnet news website reported.
The tube only has a diameter of about 25 centimeters. “Nobody would have thought that a young person could get stuck so deeply in the pillar because the space in it is as big as an adult’s hand,” said the newspaper “VnExpress”, quoting one of the rescuers.
Emergency services repeatedly pumped oxygen into the pipe. Initially, nothing was known about the child’s health status. At first, the child had probably asked for help, according to the media. “The concrete pipe is too narrow for us to know how deep the boy is,” said Tran Van Gioi of the local police. “It is also impossible to say anything about his health.”
The helpers wanted to try to soften the earth around the concrete in order to lift the pipe out of the ground with a crane. The attempts initially failed. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính was also involved in the drama and instructed the authorities to do what they could to save the child.