Rescuers pull him from deep well
A rescue
worker is lowered into the well to retrieve 15-year-old Kittipong.
Patcharapol Panrak
Sattahip rescuers had to work more than an hour to save a
teenager who fell into a 30-meter well.
Kittipong Thappee, 15, was pulled from the 1.2-meter-wide
Soi Wat Khakanthamat well after midnight Jan. 23 by Sawang Rojanathamsathan
Foundation medics. The boy was shaken and tired, but otherwise unhurt.
The teen explained he’d gone outside his uncle’s house
around 11:45 p.m. to smoke a cigarette and sat on the covered well. When the
70 kg. youth did, the old cover broke in two and Kittipong didn’t have time
to grab the edge before falling 10 m. into cold water.
Kittipong said he stayed afloat by treading water, but
the air supply that far down was quite thin. A neighbor lowered a fan into
the well to improve air circulation and rescuers eventually dropped an air
tank to the boy while they arranged his rescue.