Rescuers are battling to bring out two-year-old Sonu from a 150-ft borewell in this district where he fell into four days ago even as persistent mudslide was proving to be a major road block to their efforts and chances of the boy's survival fading fast.

An army team was assisting in the digging of a tunnel to connect the parallel pit dug near the borewell hole, District Magistrate Anil Mishra said.

He said the caving in of the walls of the parallel pit was delaying the rescue efforts.

"We had almost completed the digging of the parallel pit. But work had to be stopped as a mudslide blocked the passage again," said Agra [Images] SSP Raghuveer Lal.

The parallel pit had been dug to about 69 ft and the work to make the horizontal tunnel to reach the child was nearing completion when the mudslide occurred, obstructing the rescue operation yesterday afternoon in Lehrakapura village near Shamsabad town.

Doubts are being raised whether Sonu, believed to have been stuck at 70-ft below the ground, is still alive as the rescue work entered the fourth day.

The child's parents are in shock and are being given medical treatment.

A machine being used to dig the soil had been buried in the mudslide but it was retrieved this morning, Lal said.

"The paramilitary forces and the villagers have resumed the efforts to save Sonu," he said.

Constant supply of oxygen is also being maintained to the boy through a pipe, but no movement had been noticed or any sound heard from him two hours after he fell into the well, rescuers said.  

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