Story By: John Feng, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This is the moment a fireman is sent head first into the ground to rescue an elderly woman trapped at the bottom of a 65-foot-deep borehole.

The pensioner surnamed Xue, aged 74, was reportedly picking wheat with other villagers when she accidentally stepped into the irrigation well in the township of Xizhai, which is in Qi County in Central China’s Henan Province.

Members of the county fire service arrived on scene at 11:21am local time on 10th June and found the woman some 20 metres (65 feet) below ground.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire

The pensioner was unable to fasten a safety rope around herself, and rescuers did not want her to attempt to hold on to the rope, only for her to fall back in halfway.

They decided to bring in five excavators and began digging up the field around the borehole, but they were forced to scrap the plan when they only managed 3 metres (9 feet) in over three hours.

In the end, skinny fireman Lu Kaihao was given a harness and lowered head first down the 40-centimetre (15-inch) wide well.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire

Video shows him grabbing on to the injured pensioner and signalling to the other rescuers to pull the pair of them back to the surface.

The pensioner’s ordeal ended with her finally returning to safety at 3:42pm, after which she was taken to the Qi County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital for treatment.

She is said to be in stable condition but is continuing to be monitored.