Toddler Trapped In A Well In China Rescued By Firefighters Using An iPhone

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Firefighters saved a two-year-old boy trapped in a 40-foot well with the help of a smartphone in Mengzi City, China.

This incredible footage was recorded as firefighters in China used an iPhone camera to seek out a two-year-old boy who had fallen down a well.

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The child plunged into the 40ft shaft while playing with friends outside a small village near Mengzi City, in Yunnan Province.

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Villagers raised the alarm after they heard him crying, tossing down a rope to which he clung for about an hour as they waited for the emergency services to arrive.

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Frightened: The little boy peers out of the darkness as rescuers in Yunnan Province struggle to attach a harness. He had to cling to a rope for an hour before emergency workers arrived

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Smart idea: The high-tech mobile phone is taped to a length of rope and lowered into the shaft

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A rescue worker on the scene said the concrete well's water level was more than 20ft below ground.

When the fire service arrived they struggled to pull the trapped toddler out of the narrow hole.

Emergency workers fed in a hose attached to an oxygen canister to keep the boy from suffocating, along with a line to hoist him up.

But as they had only harnesses designed for adults, the terrified child kept slipping from their grip.

All hands on deck: Rescuers crowd around the narrow opening with torches, ropes and an oxygen hose during painstaking efforts to save the child

Then, in a stroke of genius, the rescue team taped an Apple smartphone to a rope, lowering it into the narrow shaft so its video function could show them how best to loop the straps around the boy.

Chinese state media said he was hauled out of the well and freed by about 10pm local time on Saturday (noon GMT).

Doctors at a nearby hospital said the boy was left bruised but not seriously injured