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40 people fall in well while watching rescue of 8-yr-old girl in MP’s Vidisha
Vidisha accident: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a probe into the accident. A district police officer said about 10 people are feared to be trapped under the rubble in the well.
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BHOPAL: Nearly 40 people in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha, who had gathered around a well to watch others try to pull out an eight-year-old girl, fell into the 40-feet-deep well after its boundary wall caved in due to the pressure, police said late on Thursday.
About 23 people have been rescued, MP’s medical education minister Vishvas Kailash Sarang, said shortly before midnight. Of them, Sarang said, 13 people have been admitted to hospital.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who asked Sarang, the guardian minister of Vidisha district 50 km from state capital Bhopal, to oversee the rescue and relief operation, said he has ordered a high-level probe into the accident.
According to the villagers, a girl fell into a well late on Thursday evening while playing. A huge crowd gathered around the well as word spread across the village. They were trying to rescue her when the boundary wall of the well caved in and they fell into the well, Bhopal division additional director general of police, Sai Manohar said.
There is no word on the condition of the young girl who first fell into the well while playing. Or the remaining 17 people.
“She is still in the well,” a police officer said, pointing that it was not clear if she was hurt due to the debris when the boundary wall collapsed and the people who fell into the well moments later.
Several people are feared trapped under the rubble, the officer added. Sanjay Sahu, additional superintendent of police, Vidisha, said he believed about 10 people were trapped.
Preliminary reports suggest the rescue operation, which was later led by personnel from the National Disaster Response Force and the state-level disaster response force, was suspended for some time after a tractor being used by them also fell into the well.
