After horror accident in Vietnam: dead boy further in deep concrete pipe Spain wants to supply Swiss war material to Ukraine, but federal government says no

Almost two weeks after a boy fell into a 35-meter-deep concrete pipe at a construction site in Vietnam, the 10-year-old’s body has still not been recovered. The child was pronounced dead 100 hours after the horrific accident and failed attempts to pull the pipe out of the ground.

“We don’t know exactly when we can pull the lead up. The work is ongoing, and the deeper the drilling, the more complex the geological conditions the emergency services face,” Doan Tan Buu, deputy head of government of Dong Thap province, told the German news agency on Thursday.

The ground at depth is extremely hard, he explained. “We sent an 80-tonne crane to the site, ready to lift the pipe after construction crews cleared the last few feet of soil.” It is unclear whether this will take days or even weeks. Experts from Japan would also assist in the work.

An expert told Vietnamese media that the salvage should not be rushed because there is great frictional resistance at depth – also because the pipeline is closed at the bottom. It could break if the workers don’t act carefully – making salvage much more difficult.

The disaster in southwest Vietnam made headlines around the world early this year. It is still unclear where exactly little Nam is in the pipe. It is only about 25 centimeters in diameter. Authorities said no one thought a 10-year-old could be trapped that deep in the tube. According to reports, there were only signs of the boy’s life for the first ten minutes after the fall. (aeg/sda/dpa)