3-year-old goes down manhole

Nine hours of looking yields nothing; search operations continue

Nine hours of looking yields nothing; search operations continue

Three-year-old Yakub's mother is praying that her son gets a new birth like the six-year old Prince from Hardaheri village in Kurukshetra district, who hit headlines in June 2006 after he fell into a borewell.

Yakub K, a resident of Mankurd, was playing with his elder brother when he slipped and fell inside an open manhole at 8.30 pm yesterday.

Missing: Yakub was playing with his brother when he slipped and fell inside an open manhole

Almost nine hours on, at the time of going press the fire brigade and police continued rescue operations. However, the boy was untraceable.

"If the manhole was covered, Yakub would have been with me," said Nilufer, Yakub's mother.

Meanwhile, the fire brigade were looking for the three-year-old on a war footing.

P S Rahangdale, fire officer in-charge of the rescue operation said, "So far we have dug nine manholes in a three km area.u00a0

The major hurdle that we are facing is the sewerage system. The sewerage lines are 12 ft deep and the distance between one manhole and the other is 150 meters.

Since it is full of water, we are facing difficulty in search operations."