Attempts to save boy trapped in well continue

Lucknow: Soldiers worked on Saturday to rescue a 2-year-old boy trapped for more than 36 hours in a 45-metre-deep abandoned well in northern India.

Rescue workers said the boy, Sonu Kumar, had stopped responding to his parents' voices and feared he may have lost consciousness.

"Time is running out," said Ashok Kumar Shukla, a doctor involved in the rescue operation. "We are keeping our fingers crossed."

The boy fell into the well on Thursday evening in Leharkapurwa village near Agra, southwest of Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh.

He is believed to be trapped about 20 metres deep and rescuers were feeding oxygen through a pipe to help keep him alive.

The Water Works Department dug the well last summer but abandoned it because it was dry, officials said.

Government spokesman Diwakar Tripathi said two engineers were suspended and the contractor who dug the well was arrested.