New Delhi, July 23 :

A five-year-old Indian boy trapped for 50 hours in a 18-meter (60-foot) pit emerged safely overground in a soldier’s arms, local media reported today.

Earlier, soldiers scrambled to retrieve the boy from the pit in northern India that he fell into days ago, as live TV pictures of the underground drama captivated the nation. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was among those moved by the boy’s story. “The PM prays for the speedy rescue and good health of the young boy who has been trapped,” the PTI quoted an unidentified official in Singh’s office as saying today, the child’s fifth birthday. “We will take full medical care of the boy on his rescue,” he said.

The boy, identified only as Prince, fell into a narrow hole left uncovered by construction workers on Friday as he was playing in Aldeharhi village, Haryana state. He was discovered hours later when villagers heard him crying, although he was apparently not injured when he slithered down the hole. Army engineers were called in yesterday after local police failed to extricate the boy. This evening a soldier slithered down a tunnel drilled parallel to the one where Prince was trapped, hoping to rescue him through a connecting passage.