Four-year-old autistic boy rescued after getting stuck in a pipe

-Adapted from Daily Mail

A boy had a terrifying ordeal when he climbed into a steel pipe and got stuck 60 feet down.

The four-year-old-old became wedged at the bottom of the pipe which only has a circumference of 40cm.

Wu Lin, who is autistic, was trapped for 25 hours and was cold, shocked and malnourished by the time rescue workers finally managed to free him.

The incident happened in Pengze county in south China's Jiangxi province. 

The curious child fell into the pipe when he climbed up the outside to have a look.

'Luckily, the section of the tube where the boy was trapped was buried in the earth, so it was not too cold, but cold enough for a little boy,' said a police spokesman.

A rescuer said: 'He was very distressed. He had been stuck for a long time. It was difficult to get him out. He was very traumatised by the experience.

'His parents had reported him missing and search was carried out, but nobody could find him.

'Then he was heard shouting from the bottom of the tube and we managed to get him out.

'He is lucky someone heard him otherwise he may not have survived. The weather is turning cold and he may have frozen had he not been found.'

The tube is too narrow for an adult to get inside, so rescuers first sent a rope inside for the boy to climb out by himself.

However, he was too weak to haul himself free.

Later, rescuers chose to cut a hole in the tube underground after digging a pit. He was reunited with his parents after a medical check up.