Chennai, Oct 26 (IANS): Rescue efforts continued on Saturday to save a two-year-old boy who fell into a 30-ft abandoned borewell in a village in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirappalli district.

The boy fell into the borewell at about 5.30 p.m. on Friday. Later at night, he went further down to tube and got stuck at about 70-ft.

Speaking to a TV channel, Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar on Saturday morning said that oxygen was being supplied into the borewell, adding that the boy was alive and officials on the spot were able to hear him crying.

Rescue efforts were being carried out since Friday evening by the fire service department and others.

Initially, earthmoving equipments were pressed into service to dig a pit near the borewell to reach the boy. But it was stopped midway as the terrain was rocky.

Breaking it would result in vibrations that may loosen the soil inside the borewell, thereby slipping the boy further down.

Later the rescue team used a special equipment 'borewell robot'. But that too was not successful.