Lehrakapura (UP), Oct 12 : Patience of the villagers in Uttar Pradesh wore thin as rescue operations to save a two-year-old boy who fell into a 150-feet deep narrow borewell did not yield any positive result.

Rescue operations are on to save Sonu who fell into the uncovered borewell on Thursday in Lehrakapura village near Shamsabad town, 26 km from Agra.

The work suffered due to constant mudslide in a parallel well being dug up to pull out the child.

"We have to dig 70-feet pit and till now we have dug up to 60-62 feet. But due to the loose earth falling in the dug up pit is getting difficult. First, it is delaying the process and secondly, there is risk for the rescue workers. We once had an incident when a rescue worker was close to slipping into the pit. The process of riveting is on," said Colonel Kulinder Singh, who is heading the rescue operations by personnel of the army.

Police said rumormongers were making rescue work difficult.

"Villagers from nearby are spreading the word that we could have saved the child with the pit we dug before, but it is not true. There was lot of risk involved in that. Some of the rescue workers could have died. They are infuriating the people by spreading rumors against the administration and trying to delay the rescue process," said Raghuvir Lal, Senior Superintendent of Police of Agra.

This is not the first case of a child falling into an uncovered manhole in the country.

In March, authorities rescued a two-year-old girl Vandana in Agra who accidentally fell into a 45-feet borewell at Tehra village.

In a similar incident, a five-year-old boy, Prince, fell into a 53 feet and 1.5 wide shaft in Shahbad, Haryana in July 2006. The army rescued him from the pit after two days of rescue operations. (ANI)