Rescuers face setbacks to dig out two-year-old Indian boy trapped for more than two days down well

Rescuers are facing setbacks in a race to free a two-year-old boy who has been trapped down a well for more than two days without food or water.

Industrial diggers are the centre of a massive drilling operation in India, with cameras monitoring the wedged toddler Sujith Wilson as oxygen is pumped in to keep him alive.

Fears for the child raised with upsetting footage showing his arms wedged above his head in the muddy hole spreading on social media over the Diwali holiday.

Having been heard crying, he is no longer responding to calls, which included from his desperate family.

His mother Kalairani was seen sewing a cloth bag to drop down to her son in an early attempt to pull him up to safety.

Sujith is believed to have fallen around 10m initially, but has since descended further.

Attempts are being made to stop him slipping to a depth of 27m into the hole.

Rescuers are digging a metre-wide tunnel next to the vertical passage the boy is stuck in, before an attempt is made to reach him horizontally through the ground.

But the effort to free him by a team of 25 in the state of Tamil Nadu has been reportedly set back by delays of up to 12 hours.

"Rocky terrain has slowed the drilling of a new borewell. Rescue may take another 12 hours," Tamil Nadu Relief Commissioner, Dr Radhakrishna, told reporters on Monday, according to local media.

"Forty feet more to be drilled and then a passage needs to be cut. The child is in a stable condition and is being monitored via camera."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led the Indian nation in praying for the safe rescue of the boy.

Sujith fell into the well while playing with friends on Friday in Nadukattupatti.

Reports vary as to the full depth of the borehole, with highly speculative claims of between 600-1,000ft (183m-305m).