Thai toddler saved from deep well in dramatic 18-hour rescue operation ‘a bit tired’

The 19-month-old girl fell into the shaft while her parents – migrants from Myanmar – were working at the cassava plantation farm

Cheers broke out among rescuers in Thailand on Tuesday after a toddler who had been stuck in a deep well for 18 hours was pulled out with only minor injuries.

The 19-month-old girl fell into the 15-metre-deep and 30-centimetre-wide well shaft while her parents – migrants from Myanmar – were working at the cassava plantation farm in Thailand’s Tak province near the Myanmar border on Monday afternoon.

Rescue workers wearing hard hats formed a line at the mouth of the red earth shaft, pulling on a rope, as the girl emerged wrapped in a green medical jacket. Rescuers patted each other on the back, wept, hugged, and clapped as she was placed on a stretcher and taken into a waiting ambulance.

“Great job, guys,” exclaimed a rescuer.

“She has signs of fatigue but still has good vital signs,” Phop Phra police chief Ratsaran Ketsoising told AFP.

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.

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 hole to check the situation, and after that a tube was snaked into it to provide oxygen.

Rescuers dug overnight alongside the pit, 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,” Mr Phetset said.

He explained that the operation was delicate because the digging risked collapsing the sides of the well onto the child.

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

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

In January, a 10-year-old boy in Vietnam who fell into the shaft of a hollow concrete pillar, died even after rescuers worked for over 100 hours to save his life.

Additional reporting by agencies