Fire service teams continue to work to rescue two-year-old child Sajid, who fell into an abandoned deep well in Tanore upazila of Rajshahi. Firefighters have already dug a 40-feet-deep pit beside the original well using three excavators as part of preliminary efforts. They have now begun operations to reach the main well.
Didarul Alam, assistant director of the Rajshahi Fire Service, provided the update on Thursday morning.
Sajid fell into the deep hole around 12:30pm on Wednesday while walking with his mother through a harvested paddy field in Koelhat Purba Para village. The child is the son of Rakib, a manager at a jute mill in Dhaka.
The hole, which was originally dug last year for a deep tube well, measures 30 to 35 feet. Locals said the area has long been under a ban for new deep tube wells due to falling underground water levels. The hole had been partly filled, but monsoon rains caused the soil to collapse, forming a new pit where Sajid fell.
News of the rescue operation, which began around 4 pm on Wednesday, drew thousands of local residents to the site. The fire service faced challenges operating excavators amidst the crowd. Ambulances and life-saving equipment were kept ready at the scene.
Three units of the Rajshahi Fire Service are involved in the rescue operation. Didarul Alam said, “Our team is carefully searching the area. We hope to confirm the child’s location within 40 feet. If he has fallen deeper, we may need to switch to alternative methods, although the chances of a live recovery would be slim.”
He added that the child is likely trapped and that a tunnel has been dug about four feet from the victim’s possible location. “We cannot confirm fully whether the child is there. Yesterday we heard no response, and today we haven’t either. If we do not locate him within 30 to 35 feet, we may use iron machinery to dig deeper with local authorities’ and the family’s permission,” he said.
The incident has heightened concern across the upazila, and residents continue to monitor the rescue efforts closely.
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