Minor girl falls into borewell, rescue operation on

Angul: A massive rescue operation has been launched on Monday after a minor girl fell into a borewell at Gulasar village under Handapa police limits in Angul district.

According to reports, Santosh Sahu’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Radha fell into the borewell while she was playing at around 9 am today.

Though the family had initially informed the local fire brigade and district administration about the mishap, they could not rescue Radha owing to absence of necessary equipments to deal with such exigency.

Sources said, the minor girl is stuck some 15 to 20 ft below in the 200ft-deep borewell that was dug some two years back for agricultural purposes.

Meanwhile, the district administration has swung into action and with the help of two JCB machines efforts have begun to dig a hole parallel to the borewell to rescue the girl.

As per latest information, a 10-member team of Odisha Disaster Radip Action Force (ODRAF) from Cuttack is on their way to the village to assist in the ongoing rescue operation.

Senior officials claim that the entire operation will be challenging as there is a risk to the child owing to lack of oxygen supply inside the borewell.

Besides, it is the first such incident to be reported from Odisha.

Resentment was also observed among locals owing to the delay on part of the officials to rescue the girl as already over six hours have elapsed since the time of the incident.