The 10-year-old Vietnamese boy who fell into a hollow concrete pillar on New Year’s Eve has died, according to the authorities.
Thai Ly Hao Nam fell into the 25cm (10-inch) wide shaft of the pillar while looking for scrap metal on a construction site.
Rescuers in the province of Dong Thap tried to pull the pillar out of its 35-meter-deep hole and cut the boy out.
Authorities are now trying to find his body so that he can be buried.
Doan Tan Buu, the deputy chief of a province in the south of Vietnam, said that there wasn’t enough oxygen for him to live and that he had been hurt many times.
“We had put saving the boy at the top of our list. But the conditions make it impossible for the boy to have lived, “he said.
The boy was heard calling for help after he fell into the pillar, but when rescuers put a camera into the shaft on Monday, they got no response from him.
The Vietnamese government sent hundreds of soldiers and experts in engineering to try to save him. The prime minister told rescuers to use all the equipment and forces they needed to save him.
They had been taking out mud and water to try to raise the pillar, and they pumped oxygen into the pillar to help the boy breathe.
