4-year-old boy falls into open sewer manhole in outer Delhi's Ranhola, search-rescue operation on

A four-year-old boy is feared to have died after he fell into an open sewer manhole at Dass Garden Park near Nangli Vihar in outer Delhi’s Ranhola on Tuesday afternoon, after which a multi-agency search and rescue operation was launched.

According to the police, the operation is still ongoing to find and rescue the child or retrieve his body, with teams from the Delhi Fire Services, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the local administration involved.

The boy’s parents and relatives have remained around the scene, hoping that their son is rescued alive. The boy's father told the media that his son and another boy came to the park to play.

“My son went near the sewer and fell into a manhole that was open and died. The rescue teams are telling us that they will find my son. We are poor people; what can we say now,” he said.

What the police said

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) for outer areas, Vikram Singh, said that the Ranhola police station received a call on Tuesday at about 3.21pm regarding an incident in which a four-year-old boy fell into a sewer while playing.

A team from the police station reached the scene near Kheri Baba Pul, located along the “Ganda Nala” (drain).

“There is a sewer line running alongside the service road, next to the drain. The child, a resident of Som Bazar Wali Gali, Mohan Garden, was brought to Das’s Garden Park by his mother. While moving towards the drain, he fell into the sewer manhole,” DCP Singh said.

Police said teams from the DFS, the NDRF, and the local administration also arrived at the scene and launched a search-and-rescue operation.

“The rescue teams are currently at the scene, working to locate and rescue the child. The boy has not been found/recovered from the sewer so far. Further efforts are being made by the rescue team and NDRF to locate and extract the child from the drain,” DCP Singh said.

The police said a case of causing death by negligence has been registered under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Ranhola police station, and an investigation has been initiated to ascertain the exact sequence of events leading to the incident and fix responsibility.