Boy falls in manhole, rescuers fail to save him

New Delhi: A 10-year-old boy on Tuesday died after falling into a 35-feet deep manhole in a southwest Delhi as the rescuers could not extricate him in time due to power supply failure and a non-working generator.

The body of Nand Kishore, a Class 3 student, could only be fished out three hours later from the manhole in the Delhi Development Agency (DDA) sewage pumping station in Dwarka's Sector 7. The boy lived in the nearby Vijay Enclave and studied at a state-run school in Palam area.

According to the his family, Nand Kishore accompanied his friend Rahul, a Class 6 student at the same school, on Tuesday morning to deliver food package to Rahul's uncle Sanju, a pump operator in the compound.

According to Sanju, Rahul, 12, went every day to deliver food package and Tuesday was the first time that Nand Kishore accompanied him. The boys gave him the food and said they wanted to relieve themselves.

He said Nand Kishore went towards the sewage. Rahul went with him, but came back from some distance. When the younger boy did not return for some time, Sanju said he sent his nephew to check.

"Rahul first did not find him. I again sent him back and asked him to check on the sewage side as well. After a few minutes, Rahul came rushing and said Nand Kishore had fallen into manhole and was calling for help," Sanju said.

"When we reached there, he was not visible. We tried to rescue him on our own but could not locate him. We called the fire fighting officials and police. But when the rescue workers were draining and pumping out the water to get down to the bottom of manhole, the power supply went out for nearly one hour," Sanju said.

The generators were not working either at the time and it was only three hours later that the fire brigade personnel fished out Nand Kishore's body.

"He was declared brought dead at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital. A post-mortem examination is being conducted," said a fire service official.

Nand Kishore's father Choubey Kishor Singh, an autorickshaw driver, said Nand Kishore was his youngest child.

The police said they were looking into the incident, but no case has been registered yet.