Toddler who fell down Thai well rescued after 18-hour dig

Rescuers in Thailand worked through the night to save a 19-month-old girl from a dry well — 18 hours after she fell into the deep shaft while playing at a cassava farm.

Workers clapped and cheered as the toddler, the daughter of migrant workers from neighboring Myanmar, was pulled out of the 49-foot-deep well and placed on an a stretcher that carried her to a waiting ambulance.

“Great job, guys. We did it!” exclaimed one rescuer as his colleagues in Tak province’s Phop Phra district wept and hugged each other.

The child tumbled into the hole with an opening measuring 12 inches in width late Monday afternoon while her parents were working at the plantation.

The parents said they had left their child under a tree while they cultivated a nearby field. When they went back to check on the toddler during their break, they could not find her and then heard cries coming from the well.

The deep pit — dug by the landowner to be an artesian well — had been left uncovered after it failed to strike groundwater, Phop Phra district chief Sanya Phetset told Thairath TV Tuesday.

The first rescuers to arrive at the scene shouted down the hole, and heard the child cry back, local media reported.

A camera was then lowered into the chasm to check the situation, and after that a tube was snaked into it to provide oxygen for the girl.

Workers spent a sleepless night digging alongside the shaft, using several backhoes and other excavation devices.

“It seemed like an easy operation at first because it looked like loose dirt, but once we started digging we found rock, which made it difficult because excavators can’t dig through it,” Sanya said.

He explained that the operation was delicate because the digging risked collapsing the sides of the well onto the child. So rescuers switched to shovels to remove the few final feet of soil.

The toddler was immediately sent to Phop Phra Hospital after being carried to safety.

“She is safe now. She’s a bit tired but there’s nothing serious,” Sanya said.

With Post wires