NEW DELHI, July 23: A five-year-old Indian boy stuck in a 50-foot pit for two days was lifted to safety on Sunday in a massive rescue effort seen live on television.

Troops and police mounted a major operation, digging a tunnel from a nearby dry well to reach and pull out the boy, who slipped into the hole while playing on Friday.

As a tense nation watched the drama unfold on television, the boy was lifted out by crane and went off on the arms of a burly army officer. The boy looked dazed but in good condition.

“Yes, they have pulled the child out. He is safe,” a police official told Reuters from the Kurukshetra town in the Haryana state where the accident happened.

Rescuers had spread plastic sheets to keep rainwater from entering the hole amid fear the mud could cave in. They kept the boy alive by pumping in oxygen and sending down milk and food.

Earlier, closed-circuit camera showed pictures of the bare-chested child, looking dazed and covered in mud, sitting at the bottom of the hole as a huge crowd anxiously waited.—Agencies