Toddler drowns in bathroom as her parents watch TV footage of rescue operation trying to save child who died falling down a well in India
- Revathi Sanjana fell into a bucket of water at her home in Tamil Nadu last night
- Her parents were following the failed effort to rescue Sujith Wilson from a well
- They eventually found her motionless and she was declared dead in hospital
Revathi Sanjana (pictured) fell into a tub of water at her home in Tamil Nadu as her parents followed the Sujith Wilson saga
A toddler drowned in a bathroom in India last night while her parents watched footage of another child’s failed rescue from a well.
Revathi Sanjana fell into a tub of water at her home in Tamil Nadu as her parents followed the Sujith Wilson saga which has gripped India.
When Revathi’s parents eventually went to check on her they found her motionless and she was declared dead in hospital, Indian Express reports.
The toddler, reported to be either two or three years old, is said to have fallen into the three-foot bucket while trying to fetch water.
There are no reports of any arrests over the bathroom death last night.
The girl’s parents were apparently distracted by the 80-hour rescue operation which tried but failed to save the life of two-year-old Sujith Wilson.
Distraction: The parents of a toddler in Tamil Nadu were following the rescue effort to save Sujith Wilson (pictured second right, with his family) when their own young child died
Rescue workers had used diggers and an oil drill to try and bore through the rocky ground in an 80-hour operation (pictured on Monday)
Sujith fell into the deep open well in the village of Nadukattupatti on Friday while playing outside his house.
The child was initially stuck around 30ft down but slipped another 100ft into the well as authorities made desperate attempts to dig through the hard ground.
Rescuers dug a hole parallel to the well in a bid to reach the boy, but found his dead body.
‘We found his body to be highly decomposed,’ local official J Radhakrishnan told local media yesterday.
The death provoked anger in Wilson’s village in Tamil Nadu, where villagers monitored the rescue attempt and later attended the boy’s funeral.
The boy’s family accused the local government of ‘negligent behaviour’ but officials said rescue teams made all possible effort to pull the child out.
India was celebrating the Diwali festival over the weekend and the tragic circumstances gained massive social media attention.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier tweeted his concerns about the fate of the young boy after meeting with the rescuers.
‘My prayers are with the young and brave Sujith Wilson…Every effort is being made to ensure that he is safe,’ he said.
Attempts to use robotic devices to lower ropes to latch onto the boy’s wrist failed on Saturday.
Workers used an oil drill to dig a hole parallel to the well on Sunday, but the rig broke down at around 33 feet deep because of the hard, rocky surface.
His mother, named by local media as Kalairani was seen stitching a cloth bag, which rescuers hoped to use to bring the toddler up out of the well.
Earlier, she had also been seen calling into the well for her boy, urging him not to cry.
Well falls are not uncommon in rural India where holes are often dug illegally and left open.
In recent years, cases of children falling into such wells have been recorded across the country, many of which led to arduous yet usually successful retrievals by paramilitary and rescue forces.
The rig rescue workers used broke at around 33 feet in during rescue efforts on Sunday