The Vietnamese authorities have declared dead this Wednesday the 10-year-old boy who fell four days ago into a 35-meter-deep hollow concrete pylon on a construction site in the southern province of Dong Thap.
The vice president of the province, Doan Tan Buu, indicated that the boy Ly Hao Nam has been presumed dead and that work is now focused on recovering the body to deliver it to the family, according to the news portal VNExpress.
Thai Ly Hao Nam, 10, went to collect scrap metal at a bridge construction site in Dong Thap last Saturday along with three neighbors. It was there that she fell into the hollow concrete pile barely 25 centimeters in diameter.
The security cameras of the construction captured the moment in which the boy suddenly disappeared when he fell while walking on the irregular terrain of the area. At first, the boy could be heard asking for help, but he stopped reacting after hours.
After removing some of the earth surrounding the pylon with the idea of extracting it, the crews abandoned the plan due to the possibility of it breaking, according to VnExpress.
Rescue teams, which include soldiers, were today trying to place a 1.5-meter-diameter steel pillar around the pile where the boy is trapped. The objective was to remove the remains of earth at the bottom of the pylon -closed at the lower end- to reduce friction and then use cranes and specialized equipment to lift the cement pillar.
Since the accident occurred, some 350 rescuers, including police officers and firefighters, have rushed to the scene to rescue the minor, pumping oxygen into the hole so he could continue breathing and sending him water.
