Elderly man rescued from well after three-day ordeal

The 60-year-old man was trapped in a hole 1m wide and 5m deep

Elderly man rescued from well after three-day ordeal. (ITN)

An elderly man in China has been freed after spending three days trapped down a dry well.

Emergency services in China's Jiangsu Province spent nearly two hours trying to rescue the 60-year-old man after he was found down the well on Saturday, having been missing since Wednesday.

The man left his home on his moped on Wednesday, yet he never returned. His family did not know his whereabouts until a local resident found his moped near to a temple that was under construction.

Eventually, the elderly man was found down a dry well near to the building site, yet he could not be easily freed. A rope was first used to pull the man up through the 1m-wide and 5m-deep dry well.

Instead, rescuers had to use an excavator to dig a passage leading into the well from the side to free the man.

Following the rescue and his experience of life outside of a confined space, the man said he felt extremely numb and had to spend some time in hospital recovering from the ordeal.

It is not the first time someone in China has faced the horror of falling down a well this year. In September, 38-year-old Su Qixiu fell down an abandoned well in Zhongfeng Village in Henan province.

She was trapped down the 12-ft well for a staggering 15 days before she was rescued.