HANOI: Vietnam on Tuesday (Jan 3)mobilised soldiers and engineering experts to try free a 10-year-old boy trapped in a buried hollow concrete pillar on a construction site.
Rescuers hope to raise the pillar from its 35-metre-deep (115-feet) hole and cut the boy, named Thai Ly Hao Nam, out – though after three days trapped inside, it is not clear whether he is still alive.
The boy fell into the 25cm wide shaft of the pillar, sunk as part of a new bridge in Mekong delta province of Dong Thap, on Saturday, apparently while looking for scrap metal.
A wider 19-metre-long metal pipe has been lowered around the concrete tube in which Nam is trapped to allow them to remove mud from around the pillar and try to lift it out.
Rescuers were softening and removing mud and water to reduce pressure around the pillar before bringing it up – most likely later on Tuesday evening.
