Hundreds of rescuers in Vietnam fought Monday for a third day to rescue a 10-year-old boy who fell more than 100 feet down a manhole at a construction site on New Year’s Eve.
The boy was reportedly heard calling for help shortly after he fell down the shaft of a hollow concrete pole, just 25cm in diameter, at a bridge construction site in Dong Thap province on Saturday morning while he was scavenging for scrap metal with friends.
But as of Monday he has not responded to rescuers, who lowered a camera to locate the boy’s position at the estimated 115-foot support pillar, according to Portal.
Attempts to lift the pile with cranes and other heavy equipment have so far been unsuccessful.
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Rescuers work to free a 10-year-old boy trapped in a deep shaft at a bridge construction site in Vietnam’s Dong Thap province on January 2, 2023. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“I can’t understand how he fell into the hollow concrete pole, which is a diameter [25 cm] span and was driven 35 meters into the ground,” Le Hoang Bao, director of the Dong Thap Province Ministry of Transport, told Tuoi Tre News, a local newspaper, according to Portal.
Rescuers in Vietnam on Monday worked to extricate a 10-year-old boy who fell down a deep shaft at a construction site two days earlier. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
The newspaper reported that rescuers “are not sure of the boy’s current condition” as he “has stopped interacting with the outside world, although oxygen has always been pumped into the hole.”
AFP identified the captured 10-year-old as Thai Ly Hao Nam. Video showed the boy’s distraught family members being carried from the scene while they awaited news of his condition.
Various rescuers and construction workers are digging around the concrete shaft to save the boy. (Portal Connect)
Crews have also drilled and soaked the surrounding soil to try – so far without success – to pull the concrete pier up.
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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh tapped federal rescuers on Monday to join local authorities’ efforts to save the boy, according to AFP.
Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @danimwallace.